What is Your Name, Courier?
by heathernefarious
Summary: F!Courier/Boone. Graphic themes in later chapters. Sex, violence, unconsenual touches; all that good stuff! Our young hooligan courier has a lot to learn and Boone is in for the ride, whether he likes it or not.
1. Starting Out Cold

Heyyyyyyy

So, this chapter might be a little boring but I wanted to do some character building because it's a habit of mine. Enjoy!

Oh, yes, I don't own Fallout New Vegas or any of it's characters.

* * *

It was late in November when the Courier stumbled across Novac after her long trek from Goodsprings, through Prim and Nipton. She visited the Mojave Outpost and met again with the NCR Rangers, her memory slightly foggy from the recently received headshot wound Benny so graciously gave to her. The Courier had zero memory of the Legion, so meeting them with the company of crucified Powder Gangers was a very unpleasant surprise. What she remembered about the NCR was that they were everywhere out west, which was where she started her deliveries when she was barely old enough to handle a fully loaded carbine.

It surprised Boone though. She had been shooting for so long from such a young age, and yet she was a terrible shot. She was weak, could barely handle the recoil of the gun, let alone keep it aimed accurately and deliver effective shots. Along with this flaw, she could handle just a little more lead pumped into her than an ordinary wastelander could. She was fragile and delicate like a flower. It was a wonder how she survived two bullets to the brain.

Above all of this though, the Courier was a genius. An excellent doctor, hacker, locksmith, she was also a very light-footed thief with a razor tongue. She was also very... sinister when Boone first met her. She was angry about what Benny had done to her, so she stole, murdered people in their sleep and said nasty things. There was also some talk of the young girl being a cannibal, but nobody ever saw her in the act to confirm it.

Boone was standing in the set of giant jaws of Dinky the Dinosaur deep in the night when he saw a shadow creeping along the rocks past the chain link fence that separated Novac from the desert wasteland. He thought it was a nightstalker at first, but the shadow was too slow, too short to be anything like that. But its movements were too controlled and calculated to be a some junkie Viper Sharpshooter and it was too far south for fiends to be creeping around. Boone only had one last solution for what the shadow could be. Some unlucky son of a bitch from the Legion was about to get their brains blown out all over the dusty rocks. Boone steadied his rifle and aimed carefully for the next set of boulders the shadow was headed, the boulders illuminated brightly by the moon just so the ex-NCR sniper could see the look on the sneak's face as it was blown to bits through his scope. His fingers squeezed around the trigger as the figure appeared.

Out of the darkness and out of the cover of the rocks, the Courier slid across the opening into the cool moonlight. Her dark red hair like a dying flame tussled and brushed against her pale face. She was no legionary. Boone jerked his arm just enough to change the projectile of his bullet when he saw what the shadow really was, and time slowed down as the bullet zipped through the dry air.

The bullet grazed her cheek, ripping the soft flesh right off of her face in a clean line. Blood drizzled down her face right down to her jaw, and she sighed as she wiped it away._ 'I don't need another bullet to the brain'_ The Courier thought as she scanned the horizon for the source of the bullet. The glint of a scope was in the mouth of a funny looking dinosaur, and attached to the scope was a gun. Holding the gun was a man, who she glared at with vicious intent.

That was the first time he looked her in the eyes, that was the first time he saw her ill motives. Boone knew that was the look of somebody who planned to kill another. He scoffed, and pulled the rifle away from her to scan the wasteland once again.

A few minutes later, a harsh voice called out right behind him. All of his alarms rang through his body. He didn't even hear her come up the stairs or open and close the door. She didn't make a sound. "Don't sneak up on me like that." Said Boone, that was the only thing he could muster as he scanned her face in the dark. The bullet hit her face, which was probably why she was displeased. Boone braced himself- he didn't know what to expect from this woman.

"Who are you?" She said with a hint of mirth in her more than slightly hostile tone.

So Boone told her, and when she asked questions he thought he would never hear from somebody he nearly killed, he answered. He even gave her the rundown on Carla, and set up a deal with her. She said she could help him with finding who sold his wife, and after their conversation he gave her his beret.

"Thanks for the nice hat, Boone Burger." She said in a snarky voice as she left.

"It's a beret..." but she was gone before he could say so.

The Courier pranced down the stairs and laughed to herself as she plopped the beret on her puff of red hair._ 'I'm not helping that baldo out. I'm going to rob this town blind and leave with his stupid hat and kill that stupid Benny when I get to Vegas.' _

The first lock she picked was the one in the gift shop, but she was disappointed when all there was inside the door was toys upon toys. Some Nuka, some Sass, but this Courier didn't drink that shit. So she left, scouring all the suites and Bungalows sneakily for anything of value she could sell to some trader way too overpriced, but she came across nothing special. Some magazines, a few stimpacks but nothing worth a killing. So she went into the lobby of the motel and was delighted when she found herself a big, fat safe to pick right behind the counter. Some caps, some junk. But there was a note. Maybe she could blackmail somebody with this, she thought with a sneer.

The note though, it was quite an upsetting note. It was about a woman named Carla who was sold with an unborn child to the Legion- for a mere one thousand caps. The note put the girl out of the stealing mood, and all she wanted to do was sleep it off now. The guy she just spoke to... the way he talked about how he was going to kill who was responsible and how he asked her was haunting. It gave her chills now that the reality of the situation kicked in. The Courier frowned as she left the lobby out into the night, thoughts of pity bringing her down for that woman's sake and Boone's sake. Something inside of her sparked, something human. Something inside of her woke up and wanted her to be good again. Just this once, at least.

The Courier found a mat and pulled out her medical supplies. She applied disinfectant to the wound and patted some gauze over the cut. It was about a finger's depth into her cheek, and she could only assume that the sniper was aimed to kill her, but he hesitated on the last moment. This cut was going to leave a scar, and she was not sure if she could forgive him.

In the morning, she asked around town and got to know everybody's names. It wasn't long till she found the old hag who sold Boone's wife. Now it was all up to her deciding what to do, and she was getting used to wearing the silly red cap. According to Manny, Boone was being a jerk for a long time because of his wife's disappearance. The Courier couldn't blame him though, she would be pissed too if her wife was sold for only one thousand caps, but that was if she had a wife, and she wasn't into chicks.

Before she decided to help Boone, she went and helped his buddy Manny out with the ghouls at Repconn. Finding and slaughtering Benny was her top priority, and she needed some time to think about helping Boone or not. These days it wasn't very normal for her to think about others. She left Primm in shambles and ignored their pleas to kill the convicts, she only checked on Nipton because it was on the way to Novac and she was yet to return to the Mojave Outpost to tell the Rangers of the town's fate. She walked down the road towards the ghoul problem. The Courier kept out of sight the best she could, but couldn't keep the sniper out of her head.

"Carla... Carla... Carla... Why _Carla_? How strange..." She said as she unholstered her revolver.

It was five days later when she returned to town, and Boone was waiting impatiently for her to get back. Word spread fast about what she did at Repconn, everyone around town seemed to have taken a liking to her already. He was anxious, he was slightly worried that she wouldn't bring the culprit to justice, he was bothered that she didn't find the culprit right away and bring his beret back.

Boone cracked open an old bottle of wine Carla left behind. It was the last bottle he had, and it was her favourite. He had a feeling... a special feeling. Boone knew that she would be back tonight, he knew that he would shoot the bastard and relish in the release of the bullet and impact against their skull. It was a special occasion. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath before he poured himself a glass and another glass for the empty seat in front of him, where Carla would sit so long ago.

"Cheers."

He clinked his glass against the other glass and frowned a little, then proceeded to shamelessly down the wine. Boone checked the time and left his suite, leaving the untouched glass of wine on the dinner table. His hopes were higher than they've been in a long time.

A few hours later and she arrived as he expected. Jeannie May was with her, confused and almost lost looking as she stood with the young girl in the dark. The woman turned to her and asked too politely for a filthy slaver "Can I go home now, there is nothing out he-"

He killed her before she could finish. Boone beckoned for the Courier to come up to see him, and within a few minutes she was standing with him in Dinky's mouth, staring at him with hungry dark brown eyes that were so abysmal they appeared to be black. Since it was early in the evening, Boone could see her youthful complexion in the remnants of sunlight. This girl was much younger than he expected her to be, and that cut he inflicted on her seemed to heal up well, though the development of scar tissue was inevitable.

"How did you know it was them?"

"I found a receipt of sale in her safe." She said

"Seems like the type to keep paperwork. I don't know what I'm going to do now, I'll probably be leaving this place soon."

Her eyes brightened and she quickly said "Come with me then." She smiled a strange smile, which made Boone more than slightly uncomfortable. He leerily continued, questioning her demand.

"Why would I do that?"

"What else are you going to do?"

"This isn't going to end well." He stalely said, his demeanour becoming almost harsh. The Courier chuckled and put her hands on her hips to counter his attitude.

"Well we'll just have to deal with it."

Boone nodded, he watched her body language change and rolled his eyes behind his sunglasses. He couldn't remember the last time he spoke with somebody so naïve, he also couldn't remember the last time he spoke to a woman, either.

"All right, I've got your back." He finally answered, and she started to turn away from him. "What's your name?" He realized she didn't even introduce herself the night they first met.

With the door half open, it seemed like she was about to flee the scene. She hesitated and did not turn to tell him. "C-C-Ca..." She paused to calm down and to stop stammering, and laughed quietly between breaths. Finally, she continued and turned to face him.

"Ahem, call me... Courier. My name is Courier for all you will ever know."

Boone raised his eyebrow and asked, a little annoyed that she didn't tell him her real name. "So you're a courier?"

"Something like that, yeah." She winked, turned away and ran ahead of him to avoid any more questions. The two left Novac and headed north to the New Vegas Strip.

That late November day was the start of something beautiful, and the two had no idea.


	2. Second Chances

"I won't do anything to hurt the NCR again, Boone." Courier stammered after he threatened to leave her. She stared down the barrel of his rifle and could smell the rust in the chamber.

Why he threatened her was because the girl had trouble controlling her temper, and after a couple drinks at the Boulder City bar and a heated argument with a trooper about morals, Courier decided to pull a gun on the woman and shoot her once in the wrist and twice in the abdomen. The trooper's friends quickly intervened and started shooting at Courier, but because the girl had the luck of the devil, none of them managed to scathe her baby soft skin. Boone's protective instinct kicked in no matter how much he didn't want it to, and three troopers were injured and one had their pretty head blown clean off. Before anything worse could happen, the sniper took the young girl by the wrist and downed the rest of his drink, then made for the cold, inhospitable desert night. After finding a boulder to hide behind, he threw her down on the dry, sandy floor of the Mojave and glared down at her, the moonlight reflecting ominously off his shades.

She cowered below him and he towered above her, his cold glare hidden behind his sunglasses. For some reason, Courier was scared for the first time in a long time. Her heart thumped hard and fast against her ribs and she shallowly breathed in a sad attempt to calm down. She was terrified. The last time she was so frightened was when Benny had her tied up in that shallow grave, casually smoking with his Khan buddies and watching her squirm like an insect. The two bullets that were driven deep into her skull killed off any feelings of fear, along with many other feelings to boot. Ever since she defied death, Courier was stalwart and forward, unflinching to the wasteland. When she got Boone by her side, Courier was convinced she was invincible. Whenever she was hurt, whenever she was in trouble or surrounded by an unseen foe, Boone was there to save her and keep her out of harm's way. But here he was, sending her signals of unpredictable hostility.

"You're right. You won't." He said.

Courier exhaled softly, she turned away and was relieved that Boone had given her a second chance. To her, it felt like a blessing. She almost couldn't believe it.

Boone slung his rifle around his back and walked away into the night. He could hear Courier scramble to catch up, and when she took her place in front of him he sighed. He wanted to believe that she wouldn't pull a stunt like that again, but she was fiery and impulsive. The look in her eyes was what got him thinking, and Boone decided that he should believe her. She looked like she was really telling the truth, like she just had a huge wake up call. He scoffed in amusement and kept his distance from her as they headed back to The Strip.

* * *

They left the Lucky 38 and headed out with Rex instead of ED-E today. Rex was cooped up inside the presidential suite for too long and Arcade always seemed to tinker with the pup when Courier wasn't around. Rex didn't seem to enjoy that, and sometimes Arcade would have bite wounds upon her return. Beside that reason, Rex was long due for a walk. The cybernetic dog stuck tight to Courier's side because he knew something was wrong.

But what was wrong, the Courier asked herself over and over again. Why did she feel this way? Why was she scared? Every time she turned to look over her shoulder to see if Boone was still in sight her heart skipped a beat when she saw his indifferent expression, his figure as he walked his slow, aloof way of walking. She already accepted that she cared about Boone, she even accepted that she had a little crush on him. Last night she felt it at a higher plateau than ever before and realized that she was falling for him faster than she could handle. She wasn't scared of dying, she was scared of losing her Boone. The feeling was taboo, it was a forbidden feeling that she had to push away before it got worse.

But the thing was... Courier didn't want to. Courier wanted to embrace it. Because no matter how much she told herself how unnecessary it was, Courier wanted to feel human again. From the moment she left Freeside, Courier decided she was going to try being nice.

The trio found themselves at the Mojave Outpost so Courier could shamefully finish something she should have done weeks ago. Similar to the situation with the trooper at Boulder City, Cass and Courier got into a disagreement after Cass confronted her for her bad behaviour. She didn't like how Courier stole things, murdered people for no good reason and manipulated others for her own personal benefit. In a fit of anger, the promiscuous caravaneer fled the Lucky 38 and went 'missing.' But they all knew where she was and what she was doing.

She sat at the bar as always in her usual spot, knocking back shots of watered down whiskey. Cass noticed Courier right away, crossed her arms after pulling her hat down to cover her face and rolled her eyes to the side and hunched down in a futile attempt of hiding from the young girl about to confront her.

"Hey Cass." Courier said with a weird, out of character smile. Boone grunted and took a step away. This time, he wasn't going to step in if shots were fired.

"Hey bitch face, what do you want?" Cass said with an overwhelming amount of glee and snippiness. She was drunker than usual.

Courier flinched and clenched her fist, but choked back any contempt and calmly continued. "I wanted to see if you wanted to come back to the Lucky 38 with me... Veronica and Raul miss you. You're the only one there bold enough to keep Lily from bothering you guys all day." Courier took a seat beside Cass and motioned for the barkeeper to get her something to drink.

Cass rolled her head from one shoulder to the other to face Courier. "So you want me to be your babysitter again, huh? You want me to watch over the little corpse and the little hermit so the scary mutie doesn't bug them when you're out in the wastes, having a blast while killing shit." She whipped her head away and spat on the floor, then noticed Boone leaning against the wall. A sly sneer spread across Cass' drunken mug, and she turned back to Courier.

"We all know that you're getting laid out here with your big hunk of meat following you around." Cass poured another shot into her glass. Boone grit his teeth.

"What do you mean?" Courier hoped she meant something other than what she thought Cass meant, and so was Boone.

Then Cass started to shout, catching the attention of every ranger and trooper in the bar. "I mean that we all know that you're sucking Boone's big, fat cock out here instead of actually killing things! We're not stupid! We can see how you're always ogling his firm, bulging- Ah!"

Before she could finish, Boone had grabbed her wrist and pried the whiskey bottle out of her hand. He leaned in close to her face, his breath hot in frustration and simply said, "I think you've had too much to drink."

Cass didn't try to squirm out of Boone's grasp or call out for help, instead she looked Courier in the eyes and said, "Tell your pet sniper to let me go."

Boone twisted her arm back behind her back and said, "Grab her gun, we're carrying her back."

He did not look amused, so Courier did so quickly. She fumbled around and unbuckled Cass' rifle. Her face burned a bright hot red after repeating what Cass said over and over in her head. She also found Boone's reaction exciting, if not surprising. He was never so hands on about things, especially when it came to women. Boone slung Cass' noodle-like, inebriated body over his shoulder and ignored the slamming of her fists against his back. The barkeeper brought Courier a large bottle of whiskey and in a hush voice said, "Get her out of here and the drink is on the house."

Before they left, Courier grabbed the bottle of hard alcohol and caught up to Boone, who was walking far ahead of Courier instead of far behind her. Cass continued beating at his back, cursing and yelling to get him to let her go. From this distance, Courier could hear the low grumble of Boone's voice beneath Cass' wails.

The four of them made it to Novac at three AM and the town was peacefully asleep. Boone dumped Cass' now sleeping self in his badly kept room and Courier left Rex with her for company. Boone took a seat at his table and rested his head in his hand. He looked exhausted- Courier felt bad that she couldn't help him with carrying Cass, and the way that Cass was punching him without doubt left bruises on his back.

"Boone, let's go to my room. I can do something about the pain." He turned his head just a bit to signify he was listening, and then he got up and walked towards her.

"Okay." He said, the look on his face obscured by his sunglasses. He was relieved and was waiting for her to ask. After carrying the drunken woman and hearing her spout nonsense all night, Boone could use some rest.

Her room was chalk full of medical supplies that she and Boone would drop off on their way back to the strip. Her shelves were lined with Med-X, stims and doctor's bags, along with tools to assist in surgery. The doctor in Novac was... incompetent and for lack of a better word, dirty.

"Sit down and take your shirt off." She directed him to her bed, and Boone did as she instructed. This wasn't the first time they were alone in this room, since she wasn't very able in combat most of the enemy's fire was directed for Boone while she hid. He was hurt often and Novac was the easiest place to get to most of the time.

She ran her fingers up and down his back, pressing down on places to get a reaction out of him. Whenever he groaned or flinched, she injected him with some Med-X. When he stopped showing any reaction, she put the Med-X away and finished him off with a stimpack. Boone laid back and motioned for his discarded shirt. He took his sunglasses off and put them on the bedside table and rubbed his eyes before turning away from her. They would sleep in the same bed, but Boone always left long before she woke up.

He wanted his shirt, he never grabbed it himself after she patched him up. He would always just lay there, waiting for her to give it to him. Courier grabbed the discarded shirt off the floor and peeked over her shoulder to see if Boone was watching. She held the shirt up to her nose and took a deep, deep breath in. Gunpowder, dust and the salty-sweet aroma his body smelled of was the scent his shirt carried. Shivers ran up and down her body as she inhaled one last time, then she tossed the shirt back to him and sat on the edge of the bed. This wasn't the first time she did that, in fact it was a naughty little habit she had.

"I'm sorry about what Cass said, Boone." Apologizing felt like a thing that a nice person would do, though it felt pointless to her.

He thought it was strange and pointless as well. "Don't mention it. Get some sleep" He mumbled.

Making conversation was another thing nice people did too, she decided. "Do you think the others say the same things?" Courier rested her head on the bed frame and waited for his answer, but there was none. She sank down and rested her head on the pillow and faced his back. Maybe she wasn't trying hard enough to be nice. She fell asleep with the fantasy of wrapping her arms around him, even if it meant for just a moment, even if it meant she would only dream about it.

* * *

Boone woke up as the first rays of sunlight poured into Courier's suite. His shirt held his body heat and was twisted between his legs, a layer of sweat stuck between him and the sheet. Usually, Boone didn't wake up this early. He only woke up because instead of having a nightmare about Bitter Springs, he was having a dream about Carla, holding him close and breathing softly against his skin. But to his dismay, it was actually just Courier cuddled tightly against him with her arms wrapped under his neck and over his arm. The cold, hard metal of her Pipboy pressing against his neck was what woke him up. He grumbled, but he didn't want to move suddenly so she'd wake up.

It was actually pretty nice.

_'Don't remember the last time anybody held me, I don't even remember Carla holding me like this.'_ Boone hesitated, but he turned over, making sure not to move her arms too much. Courier's face as she slept reminded him of a little girl, and she might as well was one, considering how young she was. Boone was young too, but it seemed like she was barely over adolescence. She was in such deep conflict between something she was dragged into unwillingly at such a young age, it almost made him feel bad. Courier looked innocent, and vulnerable while she was sleeping. But she was anything but that in action. She was harsh, cruel and sly. He noticed she handled the Cass situation differently than always, he couldn't put his finger on it just yet, but perhaps she was trying to be different.

He avoided getting close, let alone look at her directly in the face. The time he shot her in the face wasn't exactly ideal, since the wound healed badly, leaving an ugly, bumpy crevice in her cheek. Curiously, Boone crept his arm up to her face and swept his thumb against the scar on her cheek. Compared to the rest of her face, the scar was rough and ragged feeling. He wondered if he should feel bad for shooting her, but decided the mark gave her character. The normal skin on her face was soft and smooth. Then after moving her hair, he found two more scars on her face hidden behind her bangs. Two small, circular pock marks that were once gunshot wounds, right at the hairline. Boone never noticed that before, and she never told him. He drew his arm back after a strange, heavy feeling started building up in his gut. Boone then slid out of her grasp and put his shirt and sunglasses on.

It was best that he pretended none of that happened.

Courier woke up late in the morning after Boone threw some Fancy Lad Snacks and Dandy Boy Apples at her, telling her to eat. Half asleep, she picked away at them and ate the two hundred year old food quietly. Rex was curled up against her, and on the table was the large bottle of whiskey, three quarters full.

"I told Cass to go back to the Lucky 38, she left an hour ago." Boone sat at her table, waiting for her to finish eating. "Eat quickly, I saw some legionaries pass not too long ago."

Courier shovelled the rest of the food into her mouth and got out of bed. Rex barked and wagged his tail happily, and then Courier pulled her armour on and led the way. "I guess we'll follow them to wherever they're going."


	3. A Bad Decision

**Warning:** This is where the sex and violence is. Graphic sex and violence.

You have been warned! :)

* * *

It was January, and every year new recruits were put on the front line for the Legion. Recruits ran rampant throughout the wastes, killing travelling merchants, raiding profligate towns and gathering slaves with veteran legionaries watching over them. January was a great time of year for the Legion.

A group of recruits passed by Novac heading to Nelson after successfully destroying a Viper encampment south of the town. Novac was to remain untouched until after the battle at Hoover Dam. It made new recruits uneasy passing by the town because it was infamous for the two snipers that hid in the dinosaurs mouth. There were rumours of one of the sniper having a special vendetta on the Legion, and scouts sent to and fro around Nelson were told to only travel in the day.

That certain sniper they were warned about crept behind them with Courier, who was constantly shooting tired glances at Boone to keep his rifle holstered. Whenever it came down to legionaries, he was way too eager and couldn't keep his pants on if he tried. They followed the legionaries right to the fork in the road that led to the two Legion settlements.

"We're close to Nelson now and if we get any closer I'm going to shoot any legionary on sight." Boone crouched beside her, staring at her from the corners of his eyes. Courier gave him a slight nod of approval and smiled at him as she said, "I think that would be a great solution!"

For the first time, Courier saw what seemed like a smile on his face. Her stomach fluttered lightly. She remembered how back home none of the boys made her feel that way about anything.

"I guess that makes us a good pair of problem solvers, huh?" His face straightened out back to it's normal scowl, and Courier immediately missed the hint of happiness on his face. She always knew how to keep Boone happy, but she then realized how to make him like her again. Killing legionaries was the way to do it.

She held Rex close so he wouldn't run off and crept alongside the road to stay out of sight. Boone was now ahead of them, fuming with anticipation. Courier pulled out her marksman carbine and looked through the scope, trying her best to count the scouts. Soon enough, Boone started picking off legionaries one by one, while Courier slowly made her way deeper into the settlement. She shot at the secluded scouts to keep attention away from her as much as possible, then let Rex finish them off. Boone was out of sight now, which wasn't uncommon in Legion situations. Courier thought to herself for a moment and realized how idiotic it was for them to come into the encampment with no backup.

"I saw a woman wearing a red beret come over here." Said a deep voice. Rex growled and Courier's heart skipped a beat. She pressed her back against a house for additional cover and listened for anything else the legionaries had to say.

"That sniper will be finished in no time. I thought there would be more of them." The scouts were now picking at the corpse Rex just finished off with and Courier started moving away from the two legionaries. She didn't hear any footsteps from the other side of the building, so she advanced in that direction in hopes of getting the edge on these two scouts. When she got to better cover, she aimed her rifle at the two legionaries and emptied an entire clip on their legs. She let Rex go and let him finish them off. Courier watched intently as Rex chewed at their bloodied, maimed legs and then go in for the killing bite; as the other legionary tried to flee as the cybernetic dog tore away at his ankles and left the other to bleed out with a ruptured jugular from the dog's bite wounds.

She enjoyed breaking apart how somebody was dying by examining their injuries, watching their bodies try too hard to sustain themselves. Pain was such a beautiful sight. Rex was now returning to her, his maw covered in fresh blood. Courier always seemed to lose herself in the brutality of battle and lose focus of the situation.

_'Where's Boone?'_ A little voice nagged at her in her head, and she realized that he was still out of sight. She jolted back to reality and reloaded her gun as quickly as she could, then ran back in the direction she came from.

Boone wasn't where she last saw him, or anywhere nearby. Courier swallowed dryness and let Rex go. "Go find Boone, Rexie."

Obediently, the dog shot away into the settlement. Courier made her way to the centre of town, where three troopers hung crucified. They looked dehydrated and hungry, Courier began to unbind them since there were no legionary scouts in sight. As she got closer, They grew more and more scared for people who were about to be rescued, she noticed. Courier undid the first's ankle binds and climbed onto the pegs of the cross to get at the wrist binds. With her ear pressed against the trooper's chest, she could hear that his breathing was slow and his heart rate was very low. She could also hear him saying something quietly now that she was by his head, but she couldn't make out what he was saying.

"What was that?" She asked tenderly.

It cut into the flesh of her thigh in one smooth motion. He drew it out of her slowly in a sliding manner, cutting even deeper into her leg and out through the other. She let out a stifled scream as he pulled the blade out of her. He just sharpened his machete at dawn, and was glad to use it on a healthy young girl. She fell from the cross and onto the wooden deck. Her red hair was the same colour as blood, her dark eyes traveled up to his face hidden behind a mask. Dead Sea raised his arm again for another swipe at her, his blade dripping with a speckled coat of blood.

She raised her arms just in time to block her face, and luckily the blade was blocked by her wrist guards. She dropped her gun on the deck, but it seemed like her adversary kicked it away before he slashed her. Right now, there wasn't any time to be scared. She rolled out of the way before he could land another hit on her and then pulled out her side arm. The .337 Revolver was nice in a tight spot, and was always good for shooting close range.

The first bullet hit his arm.

The second missed.

The third was absorbed by his armour.

The fourth hit his thigh.

She pulled the trigger for the fifth bullet, but she forgot to reload last time she used the gun. Now Dead Sea was towering over her, unbothered by the two bullets that pressed in his skin. Courier stared at him coldly, ignoring the stinging in her thighs. Any moment now, Boone would come around the corner and rip this guy a new one. She wouldn't get hurt because Boone was always there to save her. His big, dead stupid body will be lying on the ground before he knew it and he wouldn't ever know who did him in.

Dead Sea raised his arm for another swipe, and Courier cockily stared up at him. She wasn't afraid, she had no reason to.

The blade came crashing down at her, and in the nick of time Rex jumped at him and deterred his attack. The machete lay on the ground as Rex bit and snapped at the Legion Commander, and Courier grabbed the blade. Boone was still nowhere in sight. With Rex holding him down, the girl released hell and more as she slashed away at the masked man until his crimson was nothing more than a torn up pulp of blood. She discarded the blade and turned to Rex.

"Do you know where Boone is?" Rex barked, and led Courier through the town.

Boone was slumped over a rock with a large amount of legion corpses leading the way to him. There must have been more than ten of them, all with head shots. The ones closest to him were laden with bite marks and machete cuts. Boone must have been on a last stand by the time Rex arrived. Courier was glad that she sent him when she did, or else Boone would have been in trouble.

His wounds were worse than hers, she decided to suck up the pain and act like nothing was wrong. She knelt down beside him and lifted him off the rock. He had many lacerations, gunshot wounds and bites from the mongrels that the legionaries kept. Courier took his arm and put it around her neck and shoulders and took him to the middle of town to finish releasing the troopers. He made a comment, but she didn't hear what he had to say. The three of them walked back to Novac silently.

When they arrived back in her suite, Courier laid him on the bed and peeled his bloodied clothes off. His condition was just as she thought, and Courier began to disinfect his wounds as soon as she could. He never complained when she fixed him up, but he didn't seem to enjoy it either. After silently treating him, she sat in a chair across from the bed and tapped her fingers against the tattered upholstery.

"Boone, that was a very bad decision we made back there. We're lucky none of us died." She tried not to sound angry, but it didn't work out as well as she thought.

He was hooked up to a blood pack and doped up on Med-X again. Their little trip to Nelson had the sniper leaving with four gunshot wounds and ten deep cuts, along with a fractured wrist. He felt useless. Boone unhappily stared out the cracks of her boarded window and tried his best not to look at her. He took his sunglasses off and refused to reply to her, since he saw no point in doing so. He closed his eyes and pretended to go to sleep.

Courier sighed loudly and took her armour off to dress her wounds. She hated getting wounded on her back side, since they were so hard to reach, but she needed to learn if she wanted to survive. She disinfected the cuts and tried her best to stitch the gashes on her legs together, but only ended up missing and pricking her wound with the needle.

"Need help?" Boone was standing in front of her, looking over her wounds.

"Get back into bed. I can manage myself." Courier then attempted to begin stitching herself again, but Boone ended up getting on his knees and taking the needle from her.

"You'll only make it worse." He had such a simple way of putting things. "Sometimes we all need help." He said as he began to stitch her cuts together. She gave in and took his hand, slowly guiding it in an up and down fashion.

With his hand between her leg, squeezing her to keep her skin taut, Courier began to fantasize about him sliding his hands up and down her legs. His grip was so firm, and she wondered if he thought similar things while she patched him up. But his wounds were never in his manhood vicinity, and the wound he was stitching up for her was right below her ass. She let her mind linger, thinking thoughts about Boone that were all too common.

She began to feel a hotness grow between her legs, and hoped again and again that Boone wouldn't notice. The cut on her other leg was higher and ended just beneath her gluteal fold. It was also longer and curved around to her inner thigh. As he began stitching her, Boone commented on her wound.

"Someone got you good." He spread her legs wider and held the skin around her wound, his knuckles just centimetres shy of her entrance.

"Yeah, I think he was the commander. He was decked out in decanus armour." She said proudly, in hopes of getting praise from her companion.

"Did you kill him?"

"I destroyed him." She stared down at him between her legs and grinned when she saw him so focused on the task at hand. This was probably the last time he was ever going to be this close to her private parts, so she wanted to remember the image; savour the moment. Her panties were beginning to soak in her juices, and she shamelessly continued with her dirty thoughts. She grew antsier by the second and Courier wanted him so bad, but knew it was in their best interests to not do anything like that with the conditions they were in.

"Good job. I wish I was there to see." He glanced up at her and quickly looked away. He was half way done closing her wound when he grabbed another part of her thigh, close enough to her entrance he could feel the heat coming off of her. Boone closed his eyes and tried not to think about it, and then painfully finished closing the wound. He grabbed the bandages off the table and began dressing the tightly stitched wound. The same heavy feeling in his gut returned from earlier, and Boone sighed.

After wrapping up her first leg, Boone seemed reluctant to finish her other leg. "Can you do this one yourself?" He asked.

"It would be nice if you helped me, but yeah I can do it." Courier wasn't ready for this to be over. Boone stayed kneeled down, awaiting instruction. "Just hold the bandage tightly in place while I wrap."

His fingers were now moving steadily higher and higher towards her entrance, and Courier had to try hard not to look amused by the look on his face. He looked flustered now, no longer focussed. He looked like he was trapped. She liked that he finally caught on and maybe he was thinking strange things too.

"Okay, thanks Boone burger." She happily moved his hands off of her, helped him stand up and led him to the bed. Courier guided him down slowly, his eyes peering into her a way they never had before, but she wasn't sure if that's what the Med-X was telling her or him not wearing his sunglasses, but the look on his face was soft; welcoming. Courier threw the blanket over him and turned away from the bed. She then heard something that startled her as she made her way back to the chair.

"Lay down." Boone projected his voice in an almost aggressive away. Courier stopped in her tracks and slightly turned her head to see if it was really him saying that, even though she knew it was only them in the room. "Lay down." He said calmly the second time.

Courier went to the other side of the bed and sat with her leg hanging off the side. Boone sat up and Courier moved a little closer to him, now completely unsure of his motives. She was book smart, she was observant, but she wasn't very good with people, no matter how good she was at convincing others to see things her way. For all she knew, Courier was crossing boundaries that Boone didn't want her to cross.

But those thoughts were put to rest when Boone pulled her close and tightly wrapped his arms around her. He was much stronger than her, stronger than she expected him to be. He rolled her shirt up over her head and discarded it, setting her breasts free to the cool air in the suite. She wrapped her arms around him gently, making sure not to touch his wounds or to press on his bruises too hard. Courier wasn't a stranger to his body, she saw it time and time again, but it only occurred to her now that Boone never really saw her body before, and this was the first day he ever touched her.

Boone began running his hands over her back and sides, which were all as soft as her face. She felt brand new, like she never saw a single battle in her life. He ran his fingers through her hair and thumbed around on the scar on her cheek. He turned her head to face his, and leaned his face in close to hers. Their foreheads and noses pressed against each other, their lips so close Boone could almost feel her.

Courier took the dive and pressed her lips against his. At first she was cautious, shy. He kissed her lightly, sending tingles through her lips. Soon enough, he began getting rougher and eager. She deepened the notion and started kissing him excitedly, suckling on his lips and pecking at the rest of his face between kisses. He pulled her body in closer, making the kiss deeper and fuller. Their tongues began shyly flicking at the other, their bodies pressing closer against the other. Courier pulled away and moved the blanket off of him, then straddled him on his lap and pushed him down gently. They continued to kiss each other hungrily, and Boone went in for the kill.

He slid his hand into her panties and stroked her wet entrance, he pressed a finger inside her and started pumping slowly, her folds gripping tightly on his fingers as he began pressing more inside of her. He rubbed his thumb on her clit and relished how she writhed in pleasure. His lips didn't leave hers, her moans of pleasure muffled out by their dancing tongues. He rubbed her clit vigorously and explored her insides with his fingers, and when he couldn't stand it anymore Boone pulled his cock out of his shorts and prodded her soaking panties. Courier glided her hand over his fully erect manhood and stroked him steadily. He let out little huffs and gasps as she touched him, the sniper almost forgot how intense intimacy could be.

Boone pulled her panties to the side and pushed against her. She guided him in slowly, and he groaned as her tight slit wrapped snugly around his cock. He grabbed her waist and bucked his hips, slamming his body against hers.

Courier gasped as he thrusted his cock deep inside her without warning. She gripped her hands on his shoulders and began to ride his cock slowly, rolling her hips side to side and grinding against his manhood in ways the sniper never could expect from the innocent looking girl. The pain of her cuts only made things more intense as she began to pick up the pace of her riding. The look on his face as he indulged in her body made Courier smirk.

He bared his teeth when he noticed her staring at him in her impish way. The sniper grabbed her wrists in one hand and easily overpowered her. He pulled out of her slowly and quickly flipped her over. Courier didn't seem to mind, in fact it seemed like she liked how he took control. She made a naughty little giggle as he mounted her and pressed his hips against her ass, sliding his cock between her wet lips. He brushed his hands against her breasts and quickly tweaked her nipples as his cock twitched against her. Boone grabbed her hips and once again slammed inside of her without warning, hitting places that Courier couldn't handle. She moaned loudly and called out his his name with the rhythm of his pumping.

Boone tried his best not to moan when she tightened up around him as he took control. She began to get grippier, wetter as he began to reach his climax. He watched her hair flip and breasts bounce as he rapidly thrusted into her, his vision began to blur as he edged close to the finish.

"Oooh, Boone I..!" She released a steady flow of fluid onto him, and the sound of her voice singing his name as she climaxed did him in. Boone pulled out and turned her over again, just in time to spray his hot cum on her stomach, moaning quietly as he stroked the last of his orgasm away.

Courier lied on the bed and stared into his eyes, looking for the soft expression she saw earlier, but it was nowhere to be found. Instead, he gave her another look that was intense and dark. She gave him a little grin, then got up to clean herself up. Her legs were wobbly, her womanhood was tender feeling. In the bathroom, she wiped off Boone's cum, which was dripping down her legs now and splashed herself with water to rinse away anything left over. As she finished wiping herself down, she heard the door to her suite slam shut.

She went back to the bedroom, only to find that Boone left. Rex was in the room now, happily wagging his tail while sitting on the bed. Courier sat beside the dog, not sure what to do after Boone was gone. So she cried, knowing that nobody was there to hear her.


	4. My Driving Force

"Boone." Courier rapped her knuckles at the door to his room.

"Boone." It was the middle of the night, about fifteen hours after the incident. The air was cool and the wind was strong. Courier was drunk and angry, her vision spinny and thoughts hazy.

"Boone!" She slammed her fists against the motel door relentlessly, but to no avail.

"Fucker." Courier wrapped her fingers around the door knob, and was unimpressed that the beret wearing meathead left his room unlocked. She threw the door open and barged into the room. There sat Boone on the far side of the room at his table, scowling at a glass of wine on the other side of the table.

"What the _fuck_ are you doing?" Courier put her hands on her hips.

Boone didn't answer.

"Let's go."

Boone got up. He leisurely walked to the girl and took her by the shoulders firmly, staring directly at her from behind his shades. Her expression lightened at his touch, and Boone moved closer to her. She gasped, he pulled her in, and he could hear the shudder in her breath. He tightened his grasp and inhaled deeply, and Courier sighed. She was a lot less tense than when she first entered, and by now she was melting in his hands like butter.

Boone was glad.

He pulled away from her, and in a swift motion he shoved her out of his room. She lost balance and was knocked on her bottom, and before she could get up, Boone shut the door and locked it like he should have hours ago.

He knew it was a matter of time before she picked the lock, so Boone began to pack his things. He grabbed his rifle, grabbed some stimpaks, found whatever ammo he could get his hands on and as he grabbed some whiskey and as he finished, Boone heard the door open once again and Courier was slurring away, talking at him. He didn't have the patience to deal with this.

Boone went for the door, but found Courier's slim form having a one sided battle with him. She tried pushing him back into his suite, telling him not to leave but Boone was having none of it. He easily deflected her attempts at stopping him by moving her arms away and simply pushed past her with brute force. Everybody who lived in the vicinity was awake now, watching the girl kick and scream as he made his escape.

By the time she had given up, Courier pulled his beret off his head and sat on the ground in triumph. Boone kept walking away while Courier was convinced he would come back for his beret. She grew even more frustrated as her assumption was thwarted when Boone persisted in leaving.

"Where you gonna go without your stupid hat, huh?" She hollered desperately, despite wearing a first recon beret herself.

Manny Vargas left his suite and was walking towards her. Courier kept shouting after Boone.

"Hey!" She protested as Manny Vargas was picking her up. She tried to wiggle out of his grasp, but he was just as strong as Boone and it was futile.

"Come back." Courier began to pout. "Boone come back!"

Manny was pulling up her back to her suite. "Give it up." he stalely said.

Boone wasn't sure where he was going to go, but these days he wasn't sure about many things. He wasn't even sure about his and Courier's relationship. She did him a service by getting the person who sold Carla killed and even did some things that made him respect her.

Courier was something of a beacon of hope for him. Even though she had her childish ways and was kind of a brat sometimes, Boone felt that she meant well through her impulsive actions. The others cared for her, and it was sure thing that Boone cared for her as well; maybe even devoted to her. She was important to him in a way he didn't understand, nor was he ready to understand.

His wounds began to sting as he was walking far too fast for somebody in his condition. By now the Med-X was long worn off and he could feel all of his wounds with each step he took. Boone was well past Helios One by now and the moon hung low as the sun's rays slowly crept over the horizon. He opened the bottle of whiskey to drown out the pain and whisk away his conflicting thoughts regarding Courier, listlessly travelling through the wastes.


	5. Lingerie in Vegas Nights

Arcade, Cass, Veronica and Courier sat in the lounge at the Lucky 38 two weeks after the incident between Courier and Boone. The four of them were knocking back shots, gossiping and having an overall good time. It was Veronica's idea after she noticed Courier was in a sour mood, and she thought it would be good for her to relax in good company.

Boone on the other hand sat in the kitchen, blocking out the loud chatter in the other room with a micky of scotch. He got back two days ago and hasn't spoken to anybody since he returned. Upon his arrival, he found his beret neatly placed on one of the bedside tables in the guest room waiting for him.

Raul was fixing Courier's and Boone's equipment, occasionally making an attempt to talk to Boone. Commenting on blood stains, commenting on bullets lodged in the armour and anything else regarding the equipment's bad condition.

Raul was relieved that Boone was always chosen to follow Courier around. Even the fact he was an excellent gunslinger in his youth and that nobody was able to out-gun him before, Raul could not handle all the skirmishes she found herself in. She was always doing some kind of stupid shit and it was always a miracle that she survived. That girl was crazy, and being alive for longer than two-hundred years, Raul for sure knew what crazy was.

Courier threw the empty whiskey bottle on the floor, she was in the talking mood and wanted to spill the beans about what happened between her and Boone, regardless of the consequences.

"You guys, I have something to tell you." Courier slurred coyly. "It's about me and Boone burger..."

The three of them stopped talking amongst themselves and turned to her, all of them intently listening. They were zoned in on her. She was the centre of attention; and the girl felt that she made a wrong move. She opened a new bottle and took a swig as their eyes hungrily pried at her.

Cass had been waiting all night for it, she even filled in everybody with gossip she only assumed to be true after Boone so compassionately carried her away to Novac for Courier. The assumption was that they were screwing on a regular basis, and the only one who seemed to disbelieve the assumption was Raul, since he was the only person who could manage to get a peep out of Boone other than Courier.

"Well, last week after sending Cass here me and Boone umm... went to Nelson and killed everyone there. He looked happy, aha!" Everybody sent her a strange glance at her little laugh.

She continued, her face deeply flushed. "But we both got hurt bad. I got chopped under my ass, as you know Arcade, and Boone got shot up and sliced really bad. We killed all the legionaries there. All by ourselves. Well, Rex too." Courier said quietly and proudly. She knew the sniper was in the other room, probably listening in on what they were talking about. It made Courier wary and uncomfortable due to how predictably unpredictable he was.

"I know there's more to it than that, _Courier_." Cass serpentinely remarked. She spat the girl's out name like some taboo word. "What else did you and Boone do?"

Courier gulped frivolously and felt already that she told them enough. She thought up an excuse, and thought it fast to prepare for what she was about to say.

_Eureka._

"I'll tell you what happened if you tell me what you and Boone were talking 'bout when he carried you from the Mojave Outpost." Veronica and Arcade laughed because Cass hadn't given them the details or reason why she came back. She blushed in humiliation and crossed her arms in defeat, just this once.

Courier opened a bottle of water, taking small sips to preserve the drink and her preparation time. Cass rolled her eyes and shrilly admitted, "Fine, I'll tell ya. While he was carrying me away, your little Boone was telling me how you deserved a second chance because you're so young, and how you don't know any better. He told me that you're smart and that you're smart enough to do what's right." After a moment, Cass looked less searing and loosened up again. She even made a comment to herself, "I wish all men said nice things like that."

Arcade tuned in, "Hey! I say nice things. Nicer things than that." Cass nodded a little, unconvinced by Arcade's snide gesture, then turned to Courier.

Courier did as she said she would after taking another gulp of water. She took a deep breath before she finished her story. Before she even started, Courier had the creeping conjecture that the story would make her cry.

"So I couldn't reach the wound under my ass while I was trying to stitch it shut, so Boone asked if I needed help. I said no but he did it anyways. At first it was fine, but things got a little heated when he finished and we..." Her throat tightened and dried as she paused, and if she talked anymore about what happened she would end up crying. In fact, she was crying all week because of what happened. It was obvious that Boone wasn't too happy about it either, since he spent such a long time away from her.

She shook her head and let any hint of sadness flow away then changed the subject, acting like nothing upset her in the first place. "You guys. We are very, very drunk. I really shouldn't have said that."

Veronica playfully punched her shoulder. "It's fine, telling the people you trust your problems is a good thing."

"But what's my solution? I have no idea how to deal with this." Courier threw her arms up to express her exasperation. She was in bed all week thinking about how to set things right.

Cass and Arcade replied in unison with the same stern voice. "Time."

Boone was listening to Raul talk aimlessly, on and on and on about how two hundred years ago life was simpler and how he never had to clean out blood from armour plates until people started going loopy after the bombs fell. Boone couldn't get Courier out of his head. Even over Raul's excessive talking, his thoughts and memories of that day plagued him, and the bottle seemed to be making it worse. Even when he took that time off to clear his head, it bothered him thoroughly. Boone squeezed the bottle between his hands as tightly as he could while he listened to the laughter in the neighbouring room. He hissed.

"_Women_."

Raul turned to look and scoffed, finally consoled that Boone finally came around. "Don't get me started on women, pal." Raul put his tools down and sat beside the ex-first recon sniper. He wiped his fleshy face with his rag and tossed it across the table, adding to the mess. "So, why the long face?"

Boone mumbled something that sounded like 'Courier.'

"Oh, boss, heh. What did she do?" Raul nudged Boone playfully, knowing all the silly gossip that was spread around about the two of them. He wasn't one for spreading rumours and Raul would prefer to hear the truth from the source.

Boone emptied the last of the bottle with a final swig, making sure to get every last drop and slammed it down on the table. He fixed his shades because they were getting crooked and turned to face Raul.

"What did she do? She did nothing."

Boone got up and stepped to the liquor cabinet and grabbed a fresh bottle of vodka, his thirst unquenched by the first small bottle of liquor. He motioned at Raul in a way suggesting he was offering the ghoul something to drink, and Raul tipped his head in approval. Boone sat back down and opened the bottle, taking another swig before setting it down.

Raul took the bottle and poured it in a one of the many cups that were scattered across the badly kept table. He poured the drink just shy of the rim of the cup and placed bottle down.

"You wanna hear about women, Boone? I have two hundred years dealing with women. It all started back before the war in Mexico when I met the first girl I was to fall in love with..."

Courier was angry. Veronica brought it up, and then Arcade and Cass were prying at her nonstop, determined to get an answer that Courier was not willing to give. She was angry that they couldn't respect her wishes, that they wouldn't leave her alone after she asked them to stop many times. But no matter what, they would not stop asking what her name was.

"What's your name? We all know that it isn't Courier." Veronica leaned in close to her, batting her eyelashes and making puppy dog eyes. "Please tell?" She asked in a sly whimper.

Arcade chimed in, "Yeah, it's so weird talking to you not even knowing what to call you with only your occupation as your identity. That would be like calling Veronica 'Scribe', me 'Doctor', Raul 'Mechanic', and Cass 'Alcoholic.' It's uncomfortable." Courier's face burned a bright, hot red. She was just about ready to get up and leave.

"Just tell us." Cass demanded whilst giving Arcade a shove after his remark.

Courier shook her head and went for the door. They told her to sit back down, but she didn't want any more of this. "What if I forgot my name after being shot in the head, huh?" she began to aggressively raise her voice.

"Hah! By the look on your face it's obvious you remember your name." Cass retorted while Arcade and Veronica sat awestruck and stunned. Courier began to shout.

Cass and Courier mixed like water and oil when they drank, and the two could never seem to remember that.

Boone craned his head outward to peer in the hallway to see the commotion. Even over the shouting, Raul kept talking. "...But by the time I met Claudia I was already the handsome devil you see before you, so I couldn't exactly..." Boone got up and leaned against the door frame. Courier hadn't noticed him yet.

"You fuckers want to know my name?! My name is _Courier_! C-O-U-R-I-E-R! Cou-ri-er! Courier!" She ran for the elevator and jammed the buttons as hard as she could, her drunken mind telling her it would arrive faster.

She stepped in the elevator and pressed the casino floor button, then started with the button jamming again on the close door button. As the doors started to close, Boone slipped between the two metal panels fast enough before they sealed shut.

Before she could reach for the open button, the mechanical room clunked into gear and started a slow descent.

Courier pressed against the corner of the elevator, feeling a little claustrophobic now that Boone was in the small moving room with her. He was staring at her openly like he did in the wastes, eyes hidden behind his sunglasses as usual. She the scent of alcohol filled the air in the small room, making the ride even longer and more agonizing. Courier avoided his gaze and impatiently waited for the elevator to reach the casino floor.

Upon arrival she waited for Boone to exit first, but instead he waited for her to exit. They stood together in the elevator mutually waiting for the other to leave. Boone could see this was causing quite a stir with Courier, and as much as he hid it, he missed getting her so frustrated over little things.

"Go. Boone." She pointed to the door. He just kept staring, expression straight as stone.

Courier felt cornered, and she was getting even more flustered. "Go!" she yelled.

Boone stepped towards the door, and Courier was glad that he was finally listening. He seemed to be leaving, but instead he pressed the button to go back to the presidential suite. She went for the door, but Boone grabbed her and held her against her will.

Boone thought it was funny how she was so easily tricked by him and nobody else.

"Let go Boone! Let me go!"

She began to scream and squirm, alerting the Securitrons that idly sat in the lobby. As they headed towards the elevator, Boone let Courier go.

She ran out of the elevator, and he ran after her from a short distance. She ran out onto The Strip before realizing she was wearing nothing but her leopard print nightgown, but was too drunk to care. She ran through the gates to the area where The Tops and Ultra-Luxe was and Boone quickly followed behind her.

She sprinted across the area to the next gate, completely confident that he wouldn't be able to keep up with her. She turned a sharp corner around the Vault 21 Hotel and sat on a bench, sighing to herself. Courier leaned back and rested her eyes and took a deep breath of fresh air. She was alone, for now.

Boone furrowed his brow as she sprinted away from him in nothing but some skimpy lingerie. She wasn't even wearing shoes. So Boone went and found a traveller, dished out some caps Courier gave him as booze money and bought his jacket off of him. He went into the next gated area and walked around looking for the girl in leopard print pyjamas. He knew she was too drunk to sneak around, so she couldn't make her way past him to Freeside and the monorail didn't run this late. As he looked around, Boone found her hiding spot quicker than expected. It was like she didn't even try to hide from him, and there were sometimes where she hid in ingenious places from him when she got mad at him in the wastes. He walked over and threw the jacket over her shoulders, then stood in front of her, awaiting a response.

"Boone, why are you following me?" She whined in defeat.

"Because you're drunk and wearing nothing but lingerie in New Vegas at night."

"Pffft, I can take care of myself." Courier leaned her head back and closed her eyes again.

"You're also falling asleep on a bench."

"Whatever, Boone burger." She laughed a little as she said his name. "If you still have those caps I gave you, buy me a room in the twenny one and I wont be half naked on The Strip anymore."

Boone pulled her off of the bench and Courier stumbled to her feet. She left all of her caps in the armour case by her bed, so she had no way of buying a room. Boone took her inside the vault, reluctantly bought a room and a large bottle of vodka from the ever so cheery Sara, then proceeded to take Courier downstairs to her suite. On the way, a bunch of gamblers gave the two some funny glances and chuckled amongst themselves as they moved out of earshot. When they entered the vacant suite, Boone closed the door behind him and let Courier plop down on the bed.

"If I had my beret on they wouldn't have been laughing." Courier's voice was muffled with her face pressed into the bed.

"Yeah." Boone leaned on the wall beside the door, sipping from the bottle of hard liquor he purchased with the last of his caps. He was waiting for her to pass out, then he would leave to go back to the Lucky 38 to go to sleep.

When she stopped moving and her breathing steadied, Boone opened the door to leave.

"Wait. I want you to stay with me." Called tired little voice. Courier had her face squished against the bedding, her knees were tucked under her body; which was hidden beneath the oversized men's jacket.

"Cass, Veronica and Arcade are being mean today." She used the same whiney voice as before.

Boone stepped back in the room and closed the door. He took another sip from the vodka before agreeing.

"Okay."


	6. There Was Never A Man

Courier slept for a few hours while Boone sat across the room, patiently waiting for the night to end. This wasn't the first time he watched over her as she slept, it was a pretty normal thing now. Boone had her face memorized while she slept, and he knew how to recognize when she was dreaming. After a week of not speaking to her, Boone realized how much he missed her.

It was five AM when she woke up, cursing about having a headache. Boone brought the bottle over and handed it to her, "This will make your headache go away."

Soon enough, Boone was sitting on the bed across from Courier's and the two were passing the bottle back and forth taking small sips. They sat silently, and they were only focused on finishing the bottle. They didn't look at each other, they just passed the bottle back and forth after taking their turns.

Courier never liked the taste of vodka. It was bitter and the smell made her dizzy. Every sip she took, the girl cringed hard and sometimes shuddered after swallowing. The bottle felt like it was bottomless because of their slow sipping, but she held strong and refused to give up. She found sitting silently with Boone sharing the bottle much more fulfilling than sitting in a room full of people. It was probably because Courier spent the most time with him and she enjoyed his company.

But things were strange now after the incident. She wasn't sure what to think of it, nor did she know what he thought of it. Sometimes it made her happy, other times it made her sad enough to cry. All in all, Courier accepted that it was just the heat of the moment. She was glad that they were back together now.

Boone swished the clear liquid around in the bottle, the alcohol was starting to taste like water and was going down easier. As a result, he was no longer sipping on the drink and was taking full on swigs. Courier noticed this and prepared herself for the bottle to be passed over.

She took the same amount of swigs he did, cringing even harder than before. Boone was now intently watching her try to keep up with his pace. It almost made him want to laugh, and when she handed the bottle back to him, the sniper sealed his lips around the bottle and poured the liquid straight down his throat. He stopped when he drank about half the remaining liquid and gave it back to Courier.

"Have the rest." He said.

Courier made a false grin and copied what he did, sealing her lips around the opening and began guzzling the drink. As the fluid began to funnel through her mouth, her throat tightened up and she spat vodka all over the place while the remaining liquid in the bottle poured all over her body. She winced as the alcohol started to seep into her bandages and in between her legs.

Courier grabbed the jacket, got up off the bed and went into the bathroom, where she pulled the leopard print nightgown off over her head and ran it under cool water to rinse the vodka out. Courier didn't have half the mind to close the door as she wiped herself down with the wet nightgown, making sure to soak up any vodka that spilled on her skin.

As she wrung out the water from her nightgown, she heard a small noise from behind her. Before she turned to look, Courier grabbed the jacket off the floor and pulled it on quickly. She turned around and held the jacket closed as she began to do up the tattered buttons.

Boone leaned against the doorframe, watching Courier fumbling to hide herself from him. Watching her squirm was interesting, because in the beginning when he met her, Courier seemed like the baddest bitch in the Mojave Wasteland, and now, Courier seemed like a lost little girl. Being around good people who cared for her was beginning to take its toll and she was starting to change.

After following her around all the time, Boone realized that he changed too. Even though Carla was still on his mind everyday, Boone thought more about Courier than most things. She needed somebody to watch over her, and as much as he didn't like it in the beginning, Boone was the one she chose over everyone else to protect her.

Boone walked over to the half naked girl and stood chest to chest with her. She stared into her reflection in his sunglasses, searching for his eyes. Courier leaned in close to him, and Boone put his hands on her arms. He gripped on her and she shuddered in his grasp. Courier pressed her chest against him and batted her eyelashes. He licked his lips and leaned his head in closer for a kiss. The girl turned her head away from him and he pulled away.

"I think you've had too much to drink." She softly told him with a hint of mischief. His grip loosened and the two stood together quietly.

Courier wiggled out of his grasp then pushed past him into the bedroom.

Boone emerged from the bathroom and came in very close proximity to her again. She patted the spot beside her and Boone sat down. He leaned over and laid down, and Courier decided that she would break his barrier before calling it a night.

She crawled on top of him and wrapped her arms around the surly man. He hesitantly placed his hands on her hips, and Courier latched her ankle around his leg. She twisted her body, catching Boone off guard and the two rolled onto the floor.

"What's up?" She asked, staring up at him.

He rolled off of her, convinced that he was crushing her. "Why are we on the floor?"

"Why not?"

He didn't answer.

"How's your injuries?" She moved closer to him by wrapping his arm around her neck. "Do you hurt?"

"No. I feel numb. Just the way I like it." Boone pulled her in closer with his other arm, resting his hand on her slender waist. Once again, the two were spending time together in silence, comfortably lying on the floor. Some time passed, and Courier's Pipboy radio was set off by her daily alarm.

_Play the guitar, play it again, my Johnny_

The music filled the air, and the two of them intently listened to the song's lyrics.

_Maybe you're cold but you're so warm inside_  
_I was always a fool for my Johnny_

This was Courier's favourite song on New Vegas Radio, it was always a special treat when her seven AM alarm played this song.

_For the one they call Johnny Guitar_  
_Play it again, Johnny Guitar_

Boone took a deep breath in and adjusted himself to face Courier, he enjoyed the relaxed look on her face as he wrapped his arm around her firmly.

_What if you go, what if you stay, I love you_  
_But if you're cruel, you can be kind, I know_

Courier nestled her head into his arm, her dark red hair messy from the static of the metal floor. She pulled the sunglasses off of Boone's face and held them close to her chest.

_There was never a man like my Johnny_  
_Like the one they call Johnny Guitar_

"Boone?" He acknowledged her call, "What's the most beautiful name in the world?" Courier peered into his eyes, her motives unclear to him. He could only think of one name, and one name only.

_There was never a man like my Johnny_

"Carla." He wistfully answered her, and Courier watched the coldness in his eyes melt away just for a moment.

_Like the one they call Johnny Guitar_

"What if that was my..." Boone placed a finger over her lips to keep her from finishing her question and closed his eyes. He slid the hand down her cheek, across her neck and over her shoulder.

_Play it again, Johnny Guitar_

"Just go to sleep."

Courier sighed and let him have the last word, which was often. The radio kept playing and lulled the pair to sleep as they laid in each other's arms for the first time.


	7. I Trust You

As her eyes fluttered open and body began aching against the cold metal floor, Courier tried her best to remember the night before. She remembered getting angry and fleeing the Lucky 38, then running away from Boone. Everything after that was hazy and unclear, and her second glance of recollection involved a spill, taking her pyjamas off and Boone standing in the bathroom with her. Her last bit of memory involved listening to Johnny Guitar and laying beside Boone on the floor.

They must have fallen asleep. Courier closed her eyes while she stretched out her muscles, expecting Boone to be gone and getting breakfast for her like he usually did. She made little morning moans, clearing any gunk that may have accumulated in her throat while she slept.

A big, heavy arm hooked around her waist and yanked her close. Boone didn't leave her after all, which was a shock, but a little voice in her head told her that he was going to be there the moment she woke up.

"You're noisy." She could hear what sounded like a smile in his voice, which made Courier wish that she was facing him to confirm if he was.

"I thought you would have been gone by now."

"I would have. But you woke up before me." He squeezed her tightly, his voice sending pleasant chills down her neck. Courier sat up, bringing him with her.

She just then realized she was wearing nothing but panties and a badly buttoned up jacket that reeked of cigarettes, meat and alcohol. Boone stood up, tightening his arms around her waist and brought the girl to her feet. "Your... nightgown is in the bathroom."

Courier slid out of his arms and glided across the floor to the bathroom. She wondered how they ended up in Vault 21, but she could also kind of remember Cass, Veronica and Arcade pestering her. Courier picked the leopard print lingerie off the floor and held it to her nose. It smelled faintly of vodka, and Courier was appalled by her choice of drink. She hated vodka, and wondered why the hell she would drink that awful stuff.

As she got dressed, Courier put some thought into their relationship and decided she would ask Boone some questions that she needed to get off her chest. Courier felt that they connected last night, and felt that it was time to clear things up. He was sitting on the bed when she left the bathroom, his face didn't hold that signature scowl of his and Courier found it comforting that he wasn't in one of his moods right now. She was glad things cleared up so quickly after the incident, it almost didn't feel real being alone with him again.

She sat beside him and asked him about Bitter Springs and his wife, despite how much she dreaded thinking about the subject. Courier was jealous of a dead woman, and it made her disgusted with herself.

Boone answered her questions just as she predicted he would. He seemed to be avoiding it too, and something about his story made it obvious he wasn't telling her everything. He got up and waited for her to lead the way, and his scowl returned. Courier felt like they reverted back to square one after asking the questions, and immediately regretted her decision even though it was inevitable for her to ask about his past. One day, hopefully; he would ask about hers and she would be faced with the awkward task of piecing things together. But now, she felt as confused as she did the night before. She felt frustrated that Boone was so up-and-down about what could pass as their '_relationship.'_ Sometimes he would try to get close, other times he would be distant and cold. It was hurtful that he played with her feelings.

But maybe it was his way of expressing his.

She decided she wouldn't let it bother her, because she knew Boone would come around soon enough. Like the guys at the Lucky 38 said, all Courier and Boone needed was time.

* * *

Courier kept her footing light when she entered the presidential suite. She knew that Arcade, Veronica and Cass were sleeping. When she went into the guest room to check up on the trio, she found that Cass and Veronica were clinging to each other under the blanket on the far bed, which barely hid their naked bodies. On the floor laid their clothing, scattered and loosely hanging on the edge of the bed. Courier shut the door and gently pushed Boone away, preventing him from seeing what was inside.

She went to look in her bedroom, where Arcade laid with Rex curled up against his legs. His glasses were crooked and half off of his face, and his shoes were still on. He was snoring quietly, and Rex laying with his eyes open, protectively clutched against the Followers Doctor. Courier dug through her wardrobes looking for something to put on, and Boone went to the kitchen to get something to eat.

Raul and Lily were in the kitchen, the old man was still repairing Courier and Boone's things, while Lily was roasting some bighorner steak, impatiently checking the oven every minute or so. ED-E floated around Raul, watching him tinker with Boone's sniper.

Raul noticed Boone come into the kitchen, looking especially haggard this early afternoon. "Hey Boone. How was your night with the Boss?"

"It was okay." Boone grabbed his reinforced leather armour then headed to the bathroom to get ready. Courier liked it when he was ready to go at anytime, so Boone tried his best to stay geared up at all times. When he finished getting ready and into the kitchen, Courier was already eating some under cooked bighorner steak Lily was making.

"How do you like it, little Jimmy?" Lily loudly asked, a wide and for lack of a better word, scary smile on her blue face. Courier nodded and gave the nightkin a thumbs up, and Lily left the kitchen, pleased with her accomplishment. Boone picked out the most cooked looking steak out of the lot, and when the two finished eating they left Vegas with ED-E.

* * *

When they got around Gun Runners, Boone started a conversation with Courier that was soon to change how they saw each other.

"I was thinking about what you said, and I think we should go visit Bitter Springs together." Boone looked uneasy, but Courier was glad he was making some sort of connection with her and showing her that he trusted her.

"What changed your mind?" Courier took a step closer to him, trying to get a better look at his face.

"Nothing. Dream. I just have a feeling about something."

"Okay, let's go." Courier gave him a sincere smile, and Boone almost wanted to smile back at her. She turned away and marked her Pipboy, and told him that they would get around to it soon. Boone smiled to himself, thinking about how telling her what was happening in his head and what has happened in his past felt better than he thought. The sniper thought of the best way to tell her what happened all that time ago. She needed to know, and he needed to let it go.

He wasn't afraid that she would pass judgement on him anymore, because Courier was becoming the light in his darkness these days.


	8. Bitter Springs Doubt

The clouds were low in the sky, wispy and scattered and soaked up the colours of the horizon as the sun set. The moon was bright in the sky and was a sharp waning crescent. The sun slowly sank behind the mountains, bringing darkness to the Mojave Wasteland. The sky resonated a cold, abysmal darkness that was different than other desert nights. It looked baleful, dull and endless. It gave Boone a bad feeling, a feeling that something was going to go wrong.

As Courier got near the town, Boone stopped her. "I want you to come with me to Coyote Ridge." As they headed there, Boone told her all about the massacre. Courier felt that he was forcing it all out, like he was making himself say things that he never wanted to say. She frowned, and continued listening, giving him as much support she could.

When they spent the night on the ridge, an hour before dawn Boone noticed a Legion raid party making their way to the refugee camp. He got ready, but not in the way he would usually get ready, Boone was getting ready to die. When Courier was ready to go fight, Boone followed behind her as always. Except this time, Boone was going to be careless. If she was in danger, Boone trusted that she would take ED-E and run for her life.

She stuck to his side, giving him support fire for the legionaries he wasn't already shooting at. Something about his body language seemed different tonight. He was anxious looking, he was pushing to the edge in a way Courier couldn't ignore. He wasn't using his ammo wisely, either. He shot at the legionaries in non lethal places too, as if he was challenging them to come closer and actually fight him. She didn't like it.

Courier tried her best to stay by his side this time, because she didn't want another incident like Nelson to happen. Neither her or Boone were healed entirely too, so not only was this Legion attack on Bitter Springs dangerous, it was ridiculously untimely.

"Go into town and save the refugees. I'll try to hold them off." Boone demanded, and Courier found herself running up the hill, obeying him without thought. There was a Vexillarius in town, along with a handful of veteran legionaries. She felt outnumbered, and wished she brought Rex with her. Not only was she outnumbered, but out-skilled.

She kneeled down and began sneaking around camp, carefully aiming for their heads with armour piercing rounds. When she dispatched around three of them, the rest of them were onto her. She ran up the ramp on the western part of town into some broken buses, and began emptying her clip on the legionaries that followed her. ED-E shot at them with her, and Courier was slightly relieved he could assist her from a distance. The veteran legionaries followed her blindly into the buses, their bodies sucking in the bullets as they tried their best to kill her. One by one, they fell to the ground bleeding out. She looked away as they writhed in pain, shaken by their determination to kill her, even if it meant their deaths. Nobody else followed her up the ramp, which meant that the Vexillarius was still wrecking havoc in the camp. She reloaded and frantically searched for them, but he was nowhere in sight. Maybe he went after Boone.

When she reached the edge of the camp, Courier scanned the bottom of the slope for her sniper companion. But just like the time at Nelson, he wasn't where he was the last time she saw him. Courier chewed her lip and gripped her assault carbine so hard her knuckles cracked. She was scared. The girl was scared out of her mind because Boone could be dead, and she would have no idea.

She peered down the hill, even more focussed than before, but she only saw legionary corpses on the ground. Maybe Boone was somewhere else. She started down the hill, but stopped when she heard the sound of metal crashing against metal behind her. ED-E was rolling on the ground by her feet, and she watched the eyebot's lights shut off along with a sad sounding whir.

"E..."

Courier was frozen, she had been too caught up in her thoughts to realize that the enemy got the jump on her. She tried to run down the hill, but instead a ballistic fist rammed into her back along with an explosion of shrapnel. A sickening crack filled the air, and Courier knew that a handful of her ribs were broken. Another punch slammed against her back, shattering her shoulder blade and right arm. She dropped to her knees and rolled down the slope, and her assailant kicked her as she tumbled to the bottom. On the way down, the first recon beret Boone gave her fell off of her head.

Now at the bottom, the Praetorian Guard stood in front of her as the Vexillarius lifted her by the hair, forcing her back to be straight as she writhed in pain.

"Well, if it isn't the Courier that slaughtered Nelson. We never thought that we'd find you _here_. How inconvenient for you." The Vexillarius spoke with his lips pressed against her ear, so she could feel the moisture in his breath and tongue as he talked. "I thought you would be prettier, considering how young and fresh you are."

"Our Frumentari have told us all about you. It's too bad we couldn't kill your pup before your eyes. We know all to well about how you depend on the dog to finish people off. Frankly, it's sickening how you watch the beast maul our men. It would have been quite the delight. Too bad we can't find your sniper friend either. He killed everyone else before running off. I think he left you behind, I think he sent you to die up in that town for being too dependent on him. It's interesting seeing weaklings abandon weaklings, because then they die alone. When we finish with you, we'll tell him all about how we milked every ounce of pain from you before we finished you off. Don't die too fast, little Courier."

The Praetorian Guard began pulling her armour off after he finished his little speech. Courier whimpered as the Vexillarius threw her to the rocky ground and stepped on the almost healed wounds on her thighs as the Praetorian Guard was undressing her. Courier bit back tears when the Praetorian guard began picking at the shrapnel plunged in her back. He pulled at the deepest pieces and twisted them around, chuckling to himself as she tried to stop him.

The Vexillarius pulled her pants off, knowing how the state she was in would keep her from objecting. She could barely move her arms, let alone throw a punch. "My, my. You are a weak one. How could have somebody so weak accomplish so much? I'm glad you rejected the mark of Caesar." The Vexillarius yanked the rest of her armour off and turned her over.

The Praetorian guard crossed his arms, then asked the Vexillarius what to do with her. "Caesar said he wanted her alive be the odd chance we ever came across her. I think we should torture her, then see if she makes it to The Fort alive."

"Yes. I think that would be ideal. There is a shack just west of here where we can have our way with her undisturbed." The Vexillarius picked her up by her arm, and the Praetorian guard grabbed her by the other one, which was broken to bits. He dug his fingers through the fractures and ignored her pleas.

They dragged her through the Bitter Springs Recreational Site to the main office, and Courier hung her head in defeat. Boone was gone, and even after all they've been through, Courier believed them, though she couldn't believe it herself. She didn't want to believe that he sent her to die, but everything seemed to point to that conclusion. She should have seen it from the start. She should have tried her best to be her own Carla, and not his Carla. Courier cooperated with them as tears streamed down her face.

She wasn't mad at Boone for leaving her, because she had forgiven him for all the bad things he did to her long before they happened. He was his own free spirit, he was his own person. Courier in the end was a defenseless little girl who defied death, and now death finally caught up to her.

Boone was making his way back to the Bitter Springs area after pursuing a group of fleeing legionaries. He made sure they died slowly and died terrified, regretting all the decisions they made in life. It wasn't until the last one fell he realized how far he was from Bitter Springs, so he made haste to meet up with Courier. Knowing her, she would either be standing triumphant and cocky over the looted corpses of legionaries or getting her ass kicked in. Sure, she was tougher than she was when they first met, but she was still fragile.

When he made it to the slope leading to the town, he saw her armour torn to bits on the ground covered in blood. He made his way up the slope and found her beret laying on the ground, and at the top of the slope he saw ED-E on the edge with a large dent in the eyebot's side.

"Shit!"

Boone grabbed the beret and rushed into town, every single alarm in his body set off and driving him forward. "Do you know where the girl wearing this beret went?" He tried his best to hide how panicked he was, but his attempts were faltered by all the survivors who were too stunned to answer him. When he found the medic, he finally got an answer.

"Do you know where the girl wearing this beret went?" Boone hadn't been this worked up in a long time.

"She was attacked by the last two legionaries not too long ago. They didn't come back, so maybe they're dead. Is she missing?" The look on the medic's face was sympathetic, if not full of pity. Boone turned away from him and ran through the camp and down the slope, searching for clues where he found her armour.

He closely looked at the dirt around her armour, and soon enough he found tracks that indicated she was dragged away. She wasn't bleeding enough to leave a trail, but the markings in the dirt were good enough for him to track her. Boone headed west as fast as he could, completely sure that she couldn't have gotten too far.

Courier wept as they tied her wrists to the ceiling beams, letting her body suspend loosely. The Praetorian guard took his ballistic fist off after deeming that it would kill her too fast. The Vexillarius pushed her back and forth, making the bindings around her wrists dig into her flesh and make her bleed. It also messed up her arm and shoulder even more.

The Praetorian guard pounded his fists into the injuries on her thighs, making the stitching reopen and tear at her skin in ways that caused new wounds. She didn't have it in her to scream, she felt too tired after the two first strikes back in the camp.

Boone lost the trail about halfway into the recreational area, along with his nerves. He thrashed from place to place, but his leads were all diminished. He felt like he was never going to see her again.

"_Courier!_" He bellowed into the early morning sky. Once again, Boone called the name she made everybody call her. "_Courier!_"

The girl lobbed her head from side to side, sniffling and sobbing lightly. It felt hard to breathe, and her vision was getting blurred by her sweat and tears. The Vexillarius was giving her stomach shallow cuts, while the Praetorian guard sat on the far side of the room watching.

"When you're done making her bleed, let's rape her and then take her to the fort." The Praetorian stared at her hungrily, tracing his eyes up and down her slim body. It made Courier feel dirty.

The Vexillarius gave her one last cut that went from one side of her stomach to the other, then cut her down, grazing her knuckles with his machete. "Get it over with. This bitch isn't my type."

The Praetorian guard dragged her into the other room, and as he was doing so, Courier could hear something coming from outside. It was Boone calling for her. The others seemed to hear it too, and the Praetorian guard held her mouth shut. "Don't try calling out for him while I'm fucking you, girlie."

She sobbed from behind his hand and obeyed him. All she had to do was wait for the perfect moment, and then she had to use all of her strength to call out Boone's name. Hopefully, he wouldn't be gone by then. The guard put her face-up on a desk and leaned against her, grinding his hips against her aggressively.

The Praetorian guard stroked himself as he clamped his hand around her face even harder, as if he was reading her thoughts. "Just because he came back for you doesn't mean he can save you." He spread her legs and pulled his cock out from under his crimson, and pushed himself between her legs. She kicked at him, trying her best to make a diversion. All she had to do was get him to loosen his grip around her face.

Courier swung her left arm at his face, knocking against his jaw. He turned his head back to her and pressed his cock against her entrance, and growled. "You're going to have to try better than that." He pulled her panties out of the way, and as he began prodding her she reached for anything she could. A thin, long piece of wood was just in reach and the guard was too focussed on getting inside of her. It was a pencil.

"Damn this bitch is tight!" He moved his free hand to her crotch and forced his fingers into her, and then Courier made her strike. She jammed the pencil into the side of his neck, and the Praetorian guard let her face go to rip the pencil out, giving her enough time to scream.

"BOONE!" Her throat burned as she screamed as loud as she could, her lungs strained and chest heaved as the scream exited her. The guard pulled away from her and gave her a swift punch in the face before leaving the room to get his weapon.

Boone heard it. He heard what sounded like the final call of a cornered animal, and he ran for the building where it came from. _'Courier'_ He thought as he neared.

They were already standing outside, waiting for him to get there. The Vexillarius wore that stupid coyote head and banner while the Praetorian guard was already charging towards Boone on sight. The sniper shot the guard square between the eyes, dispatching him before he could get close. The Vexillarius nodded and gave Boone a smirk before raising his weapon to fire.

"I'm taking that girl back to Caesar before a weakling like you kills me." the Vexillarius said proudly. Boone was having none of it. He shot the legionary once in the gut, reloaded and shot him again in the kneecap. The Vexillarius lost focus, and before he knew it Boone was standing over him, the long barrel of his sniper pressed against the legionary's head.

"Eat this!" He squeezed the trigger, sending a bullet straight through the tackily dressed Vexillarius.

Boone went inside the office and found Courier laying on a desk, bruised and broken looking. It was a tough sight and it made him sick. The sniper scooped her up and carried her out of the building without saying a word. She opened her eyes and smiled, then quietly spoke to him under the dawn sky.

"They said you left me behind because I was weak." She nestled her head against him the way she did at the Vault 21.

"I believed them, and I didn't want to." She threw her arm around his neck and made an effort to pull herself closer to him.

"I wanted to believe you were coming back, but instead I thought you were gone." Courier rubbed her fingers against his skin, gently caressing him. She felt light as air and the pain seemed to disappear when she was close to him. He held her beret in his hand, and she took it from him and put it on.

"I was dealing with fleeing legionaries." Boone reassured her.

"Boone, I know I'm young and stupid but I think I love you." Boone pulled her closer to him as she said those words.

"I know you won't believe me when I say this but I think you should know my name now." She made sounds that sounded like laughter. Like a big joke was about to be told and she couldn't contain herself.

"Boone, heh, my name is... Carla." Courier began laughing a painful laugh, and Boone stared down at her with a small grin. He started laughing with her, albeit quietly.

"I couldn't tell you back in Novac. I felt terrible about what happened, so I thought up Courier." She let go of his neck and rested in his arms.

"You can keep calling me Courier if you want." Boone pulled her close to his face and pressed his lips against her forehead.

"I think Carla suits you."

"Okay."

Courier closed her eyes and smiled for the rest of the trip. He brought her to the New Vegas Medical Clinic, got her patched up as she slept and then walked to the Lucky 38, where nobody asked any questions as Boone carried her into her room and shut the door behind them.


	9. See You Soon

In March, Boone walked with Courier as spring began the weather started to get hotter in the Mojave. She took him north past the strip, past Westside and Fremont all the way to the mountains, where abandoned fields of corn and gardens of barrel cacti were abundant.

Her Pipboy was playing a broadcast about some caravan company going to New Canaan. Boone heard about it before, and it was typical that they were headed there in the spring. Something about the whole thing gave him a bad feeling. As soon as she finished physiotherapy for her arm with Arcade, she goes off and follows some weird broadcast. It just wasn't right.

Even when she left, Carla didn't seem too keen on him following her. It was also very uncharacteristic of her to not leave with Rex or ED-E, who was just recently been repaired and upgraded by the Followers. Whatever she had planned, strange was written all over it.

After combing through the mountainside, the courier led Boone into a cave. In the cave was a group of people, all of which seemed geared up and ready to go. Carla spoke with the man who seemed to be running things, and Boone had the feeling that he was going to be left behind.

"You can bring your companion, the more the merrier."

She looked at Boone with a dull, brassy look in her eyes. "No, I don't want to risk it, plus I'm all the skill you'll need." She jeered and winked at the man, and Boone stifled a grunt from the blow.

_'What the hell is she doing?'_ He thought, fighting off the sting of rejection.

The courier finished the deal, and the man in charge announced they were leaving right away. She came over to Boone and wrapped her arms around him. He returned the gesture, and it was obvious he was distressed.

"I need to stop depending on you." Her words were like ice; they were cold and it burned.

"Carla..."

"I want to impress you and the others."

Boone squeezed her against him, confining her to his embrace. He couldn't find the words to tell her how much he admired her, how nobody else accepted her as much as him.

He fretfully whispered to her as she tightened her embrace around him too.

"I'll see you soon."

A nervous chuckle answered him. "Yeah, see you soon."

She left. A little bit of him went with her.

After losing track of time at the presidential suite, Boone slept in her bed awaiting her return, but as much as he tried to keep his worries away he started dreaming less about the original Bitter Springs incident and more about finding her almost lifeless body, lying beaten and broken.

One night, he felt a small frame crawl into the bed and curl up against him.

The following morning, Courier led him to another place hidden in the mountains, this time just a little ways from Primm.

"See you soon." He said as she left him again. There were busses covered in messages for someone called _Courier Six_, it made him uneasy due to their aggressive nature.

She came back in the early morning after word spread of the decimation of the legion camp Dry Wells, and Boone was the only one awake in the suite. She stood in the elevator with a sullen expression that didn't change when he greeted her.

Carla led him south past Nipton to an old drive in, where a satellite laid in the broken ground with its pieces laying all over the old cement. They spent the day sitting in the sun, and Boone couldn't ask her what happened in her last expedition.

"How long has it been?" He grumbled as the sun began to set.

"Almost a month. I was at Zion for two weeks and The Divide for eight days." She fiddled with her Pipboy, avoiding having to look at Boone.

"Did you hear about what happened to Dry Wells?" Boone nodded to the east.

"I nuked it myself." She pompously replied. Boone smiled halfway before turning to look at her.

"Wish I could have seen it." He crossed his arms and waited for her to say something witty like she always did, but instead she stayed quiet and he found himself wanting to break down her walls instead of the other way around.

After a while, he asked her another question. "What are we doing here?"

"I'm leaving again."

Boone sighed.

She tucked her legs between her arms. "I'm sorry if I'm being... cold. I just met somebody and I couldn't convince him to change his mind about the Mojave and the NCR. I couldn't convince him to think otherwise so I had to kill him. I'm just a little upset."

Boone shuffled closer to her.

"Then stay." He said solemnly.

"I need to rest."

She moved to his side and rested her head on his shoulder, and soon enough she was asleep. Her Pipboy alarm went off half an hour before midnight, and she sent Boone back to the Lucky 38.

Before he left he said, "See you soon."

It must have been four weeks before she got back. Boone spent time in the penthouse shooting House's stuff and drinking his fine wines and high end liquor that maintained their labels in that glorified time capsule.

"There you are." She stood at the top of the staircase, looking amused at the messy sight ahead of her.

"You sure know how to respect a dead guy's sanctuary." She snidely said as she walked down to greet him.

"Are we leaving?" Boone was starting to hope she would say no.

"I only need to go to one more place."

She looked very haggard and unkempt. Her hair had grown and she seemed like a completely different person, like a different type of wild child amongst the crazy people in the wasteland. The girl used to be very vain about her appearance and would always cut her hair if it became too unruly. She even began to carry herself differently, and was proud in a different way contrasted to her old extreme affinity for herself and herself only.

_'Who are you?'_ He thought, but it was her. It was the Carla he knew, it was the Courier shedding her old self into something new.

He escorted her to a Brotherhood bunker and she didn't let him come inside. Courier gave him a kiss on the lips before leaving, and with his lips brushing against hers he whispered,

"See you soon."


	10. She Returns Rebirthed

It was the first day of May and the weather was beginning to get even hotter. The presidential suite held all the heat accumulated, making the place similar to a furnace or an oven.

Boone laid in the courier's bed alone, his body slick with drops of sweat. He bunched the blanket in his hand on the side she slept on, breathing deeply to find her scent in the air. He missed her.

He thought of what she said after Bitter Springs and always cursed himself for not saying anything back except for _'I was dealing with fleeing legionaries'_ while she poured her heart out to him. Sometimes it made him angry, other times it made him sad, thinking of her body ready to give out any moment as he carried her. She was so light, like he was carrying nothing. Boone pulled the blanket over his head and twisted it around his body, making himself forget about that night. It bothered him more and more everyday she was gone, and all he wanted to do was see her face and know she was okay.

Boone heard Rex outside the door, scratching away to tell Boone he wanted in. He slowly crawled out of the bed and made his way across the gigantic room and opened the door. Rex excitedly pushed past him and leaped onto the bed, his tail wagging fast and tongue hanging out as the cybernetic dog panted away.

Boone shut the door behind him and laid on the bed, occasionally giving Rex a nice big stroke. The dog eventually laid down next to Boone.

"You miss her too, huh?" Rex whimpered and Boone gave him a scratch under his chin, sighing.

"We all miss that courier." He rolled to the side away from Rex and shut his eyes, going back to resting like always.

Boone was awakened by a ruckus outside of the master bedroom, and Rex was scratching at the door to get out. He listened for what was happening, half expecting Lily to be bothering Raul to eat some raw steak, half expecting Cass picking a fight with somebody. But this noise didn't sound mean or violent, it sounded happy.

He pressed his ear against the door, ignoring Rex as he whined to leave.

"Oh Jimmy I'm so glad you're home."

"How was the Sierra Madre, Boss? I always wanted to go before the war."

"Did you find any valuable information about the area and lifestyle? Did you find me another dress?"

"It looks like you were wearing a slave collar... But you weren't, right?"

"Did you bring me back any whiskey? We're running low."

They all pestered her, and the courier smiled as they crowded her, all eagerly asking how her trip was. "I'll tell you all about it... in a minute." She pushed past the crowding people to the master bedroom door. They all scowled in disappointment, then dispersed throughout the suite.

Boone opened the door and Rex started jumping up at the courier, happily licking at her face. The sniper stood in the middle of the room, his arms crossed and face hidden behind his sunglasses as always.

She sent Rex out of the room and closed the door. She walked into Boone's embrace and nuzzled her face against his chest, wrapping her arms as tightly as she could around him.

_'Finally'_ Boone thought.

"I thought of you everyday, Boone." He stroked her hair and slowly walked backwards to the bed.

"I did too, Carla." She pushed him down onto the bed and rested on top of him.

"I wanted to leave and come back for you all, but I had a lot of things to do." Boone started pulling away at her armour, undressing her slowly as she spoke.

"We knew you were going to be gone for a while." The girl helped him take her armour off, exhausted from the long journey she just had. Boone unbuckled the last clasp on her chest piece and pulled it off of her, then began working on her pants. "Whenever you went somewhere alone, like the Big Empty or Zion you always took your time."

The courier was completely undressed, right down to her underwear. She got off of Boone and said, "I'm going to look for something to wear."

Before she could get off the bed, Boone snagged his fingers around her panty waist and pulled her back to him. The elastic tore in the process and before Courier could object, Boone was planting a million kisses on her lips and neck. He pulled her close to him, so close that he could feel her heart thumping against her chest. He took in her scent, his eyes rolled back into his head as he tore the rest of her panties off.

Boone missed her a lot.

He traced his fingers along her sides, letting her curves guide his hands. The girl took his sunglasses off and put them on the bedside table before rocking her hips against him, her face burning a furious red.

"Boone, everybody will hear us." She huskily whispered into his ear.

"Then we'll take it slow." He bucked his hips against her as he spoke between kisses.

He flipped her over and placed her on her back, sliding his fingers between her wet slit. She whimpered and squirmed as he began pumping his fingers inside of her, scissoring and stroking her inner walls. Boone pulled his fingers out of her and stroked his throbbing erection with his slick fingers. He looked her in the eyes with animal motives burning deep within him.

He slammed his waist against her inner legs, violently pushing his cock through her entrance. She shook her head in pleasure as he slowly rocked back and forth, pulling himself in and out of her at a steady pace. The girl huffed and moaned softly as she clenched around him, making her best effort to stifle any loud noises she wanted to make.

The courier ran her hands along his back, tracing his scars and every contour of his body. She murmured sweet nothings to him, sweet nothings that felt like everything to her.

He lifted her up and brought her to the wall, where he could thrust as hard as he could without anybody hearing anything. She wrapped her legs and arms around him, silently crying out his name as they made love.

"Boone... Boone... You have me." She panted and moaned as he picked up the intensity. He quickly reached his climax and rested his head against her as he finished.

Boone released inside of her this time, filling her up with his orgasm. He grunted as he kept pushing inside of her, making sure she enjoyed herself fully before he pulled out of her. The courier laid in his arms and Boone laid in hers for a while, thinking about what was to happen in the next little bit of time. The two sank to the floor, and the courier sat in his lap as he twisted her hair between his fingers.

"Carla. You've changed." Boone said into her shoulder with his lips brushing tingles on her skin. She gave him one last squeeze before shifting in a way that indicated she wanted to get up.

"Let's get dressed. The others are probably wondering what we're doing." She stroked his arm before getting something nice on.

Boone put his sunglasses on and pulled his pants up. He put his shirt on and followed her out of the master bedroom and into the kitchen, where the others put together a small dinner for the courier's return.

"Let's all make a toast for Carla the Courier, for good luck and safety at the battle for Hoover Dam!" Veronica raised her glass, and the others did so too. "For all of us!"

In the the next week, Carla set out for the battle at Hoover Dam with new skills that none of her companions could imagine.


	11. Hoover Dam Damning

The Sunday morning after Carla returned was the day they were to depart for Hoover Dam. Everybody was required to have a full night of sleep, so the suite was full of sleeping bodies in random places throughout. Arcade used to sleep beside Boone, but since he started openly staying in Carla's room he refused to sleep beside Raul, so the ghoul slept on the couch in the lounge with a deactivated ED-E on the floor beside him. Cass and Veronica became something of an item, so they were accustomed to sleeping together in the same bed. Lily slept on the kitchen floor, claiming all the cushions from throughout the suite as what she called her _piecey bed_. Boone slept with Carla, and Rex was at the foot of the bed. Never once before was the presidential suite at the Lucky 38 completely asleep.

They all left in the wee hours of the morning, everybody completely prepared for the bloody battle that waited for them in the next couple of hours. All of them were prepared to die to prevent the Legion from claiming the Mojave.

* * *

"Let's head to Novac before going to the Dam." The courier announced to her entourage.

Everyone else besides Boone and Carla were underprepared regarding weapons and weren't wearing appropriate armour.

They followed their young leader into the suite closest to the gate on the second floor of the motel, and all of them were shocked at what they found inside of the room. Weapons lined the walls, a mountain of caps sat on the bed, alcohol tightly populated the shelves of the room, tools and fancy clothes were neatly arranged in the room.

"Everybody grab a set of reinforced leather armour, except for you Lily, and I'll give you the weapons I want you to take and gear you up myself." Courier clapped her hands and beckoned for Lily to follow her to the bathroom.

Cass piped up. "What is this place, _Courier_?" Even after months of knowing her name, Cass still refused to call her by it. Carla didn't mind though, it was comforting in fact.

She murmured forwardly as she was focussed with the task at hand. "After the battle I'm going to let you all take whatever you want from here." She pulled out some thick metal plating from the bathroom that were warped enough to be used as armour. Carla began suiting up Lily as everybody else put their armour on.

"Boone, grab that Anti-Materiel Rifle and take whatever you can from the box labelled .50. There are explosive, incendiary and armour piercing rounds in there." Boone did as he was told, and found that even he was impressed with what she managed to get a hold of.

"Now grab that broad machete, Boone."

She finished suiting up Lily and then pulled a rebar club out of the bathroom. "This is called the Nuka-Breaker, Lily."

"How creative Jimmy. Leo likes it a lot."

"Raul grab that fire axe and the .45 on the table. That gun is very special. Cass take that brush gun and take a machete. Aracde, you get a machete as well and uh..." She had trouble finding her next words, "...there's a weird lookin' blaster in the dresser."

Arcade opened the drawer she pointed to, and inside there were laser pistols, plasma pistols and plasma defenders, as well as a few pistol-style energy weapons he couldn't name. But one of them looked very different than the rest and even emanated a strange mist about it. He pulled it out with pinched fingers, looking confused and unsure while holding it far away from his body.

"What is this?" He quizzically asked.

"I dunno. I think aliens made it." Carla smiled childishly, but in all truth she had no idea what the weapon really was either.

"So you're sending me to fight with an... _alien blaster_?"

"Yeah."

Arcade rolled his eyes and holstered the strangely designed weapon. The courier grabbed one more thing from the bathroom and handed it to Veronica. It was a displacer glove.

"A displacer glove?" Veronica looked stunned as she poked around at the weapon.

"Just like Caesar's. Only better." Carla winked cheekily before grabbing stimpacks from the numerous first aid kits.

"Everybody gets about five stimpacks. Arcade and I will carry extra if anybody needs more or gets hurt. We're splitting into two groups. Boone and I will be the leaders. While I think up your groups, take your ammo and reload your weapons."

Boone flinched, but it was to be expected that he would be placed with the responsibility of group leader. Travelling in a large group would end in tragedy anyways, and it would be very inefficient against a large foe, especially in the narrow corridors of the dam.

"Raul and Veronica will come with me. I'll be taking Rex, while Boone takes Lily, Arcade, Cass and ED-E. Everybody stick together the best you can. We'll split up in the lower dam, and avoid the surface because the boomers will be carpet bombing the place for me." Everyone moved into their according group, then shortly after they departed for the dam.

* * *

Upon arrival, the dam was bustling with fighting energy. Khans flooded in through the south, taking punishment from NCR and Legion alike until not a single one was standing; it was a painful sight. Veteran legionaries with their decanus leaders strut over NCR trooper bodies, slicing their throats to ensure they were dead, while the Lady in the Water pelted the dam with explosives.

Through his scope, Boone could see that the NCR was having trouble holding them off on the other side of the dam. Carla's group went first to his dismay, and he wasn't alone on that feeling. Raul and Veronica looked as if they were marching to their deaths with the young courier leading them to a oneway route to the gallows, but they looked more determined than he had ever seen.

Courier brought a unique carbine with her for the attack, along with a super sledge that Raul was sure she couldn't handle correctly. Boone began picking off legionaries blocking the entrance to the dam, and Cass assisted him in doing so.

They entered the building, which was Boone's group's cue to leave the vantage point. Lily ran ahead with Arcade and ED-E, while Boone and Cass stuck together.

"Why can't I go with Arcade? You're a tough guy." Cass grumbled. She hadn't gotten over how he carried her all the way to Novac.

"You're a woman. If Lily and Arcade can't protect you, you'll be taken as a slave." Boone coldly said.

Cass withdrew and began to reload, rolling her eyes. He looked at her from the corner of his shades with a smirk.

"Plus, I need some cover."

Cass' expression lightened up. They followed the rest of their group from a distance. In the lobby, there was a group of dead legionaries on the ground, their bodies picked clean of anything of value. A trademark for that courier, but they lacked every other sign that she killed them. Their wounds didn't have the signature bite marks Carla enjoyed so much, instead their skulls were crushed and their bodies had extreme hemorrhaging. None of the troops or rangers in the area had such a large weapon and they all looked stunned.

"It looks like they were killed with a super sledge." Arcade matter-of-a-factly said. He looked as puzzled as the rest of them did.

"None of these troopers have super sledges. Only Carla took a blunt weapon." He pushed up his glasses as everybody besides Lily exchanged bewildered glances. Lily just looked smug and proud of her Jimmy.

"What the fuck." Cass nonchalantly said.

"Let's go." Boone beckoned for them to follow him to the lower levels.

On the balcony overlooking the dam's lower area, the group had a great view of the bloodshed that was happening below. Beheaded NCR rangers lay on the floor, while dead legionary bodies resembled bloody swiss cheese. More and more troops on both sides flooded in, passionately fighting for their beliefs.

"Arcade, Lily, take the robot and head downstairs. Look for Carla if you can. Cass and I will cover you once you get down there." Boone instructed as he began picking off legionaries once again. He wondered what the courier was doing as Cass buckled down beside him, keeping an eye on both the doors if the enemy decided to flank them.

* * *

Carla was wondering what Boone was doing. A part of her wanted him to see what she was doing, but he was the second most skilled in her entourage. He had to lead the other group, plus he had the other red beret. It was only suitable. Raul and Veronica were stunned at the amount of skill she accumulated in the past two months. They only fought together on rare occasions, and even they couldn't get over how unskilled and clumsy she was. Now she was doing all the work and rushing ahead of everyone, senselessly barging into battle like she was untouchable.

And she was. She swung the super sledge with a fierce might that Veronica and Raul had never witnessed with her before. Before the legionaries could get close, she smashed their machetes right out of their hands and broke their arms in the progress. The legionaries with guns were the only ones Raul had to deal with, and anybody who fled felt the wrath of the displacer fist Veronica was given.

"You make me feel old, Boss." Raul called out after he shot a legionary before he could raise his varmint rifle. "I can't believe you're doing this."

"Let's just say I went through some intense training when I was gone." As she wiped the soft, bruised flesh off her chest plate, Carla regrouped with her companions. Rex was busy making sure the legionaries were dead. Veronica adjusted her hood and Raul rubbed at a gunshot wound on his bicep.

"After we patch you up, let's head for the next area. I don't think they're coming here anymore." The courier took a scalpel out of her pack and dug the slug out of his arm, then wrapped it up and injected him with a stimpack.

"Gee Boss, is there anything you _can't_ do?"

"No. I'm pretty good at everything now." She winked and Veronica chuckled at her remark.

They headed to the next area, where Carla had planned to flush out the legionaries in the turbines to cripple their assault on the dam. They fought off anybody on their way to the terminal, and the courier instructed Raul and Veronica to block the staircase and cover her as she activated the system.

But as she reached the top of the staircase, a Centurion stood in front of the destroyed terminal. He was armed with a bumper sword, and he was much taller than most people she knew. He callously turned to face her and had a sickening grin plastered across his face.

"Well, well, well. Looks like we were one step ahead of the non-commissioned NCR asset." He jested as he pulled his bumper sword off his back.

"That just means my friends and I can annihilate more of you bastards face to face." She tightened her grip on the super sledge and prepared to charge at him as he advanced on her. Shots were being fired in her direction and she could hear the distinct pop of Raul's .45 frantically trying to advert their attention to him.

A bullet dug into her side, but Carla kept going. She swung at him, but he didn't even stumble when her blow landed. She jumped back and braced herself for his blow, and as the bumper sword came plummeting down to smack her, she could barely keep her footing when it made impact.

She grunted and the Centurion began to laugh as he swung at her again from the side, this time the impact drove her into the wall and down to her knees.

_'Fuck.'_

Before he could hit her again, the courier whipped out a switchblade from her chest sheath and swiftly jammed it into an exposed area beneath his knee. He yowled, but the bumper sword continued making it's way down at her. The blunt blade hit her side once again, knocking the wind out of her and she started to bleed. The knife served as an appropriate diversion, because he stumbled backwards and his blow was a lot less forceful than before. She slid out of the way and against the wall to regain her bearings, and readied her weapon once again.

Veronica was already running to help her out while Raul was finishing off the last of this wave with Rex running into the battle, making sure their foes were dead by tearing at their throats.

Veronica pulled her fist back and charged it into his lower back, the blue sparks of energy rendering him crippled on contact. He sank to the floor, sputtering blood and spewing blasphemy with his last breaths.

"It's too late... Hoover Dam is ours. Your efforts were in... vain..! You will be executed in the most pai..nful of matters! You are... You are already dead!" The Centurion choked out his last words as he sank to the ground, and Carla raised the super sledge high above her head, then drove it down to the floor to end his banter.

"This is probably the best weapon I've ever used." Veronica enthusiastically mused after the execution.

Raul read the troubled expression easily on her face while Veronica seemed oblivious. "What's bothering you, Boss? You hurt?"

"Yeah, I got shot." She furrowed her brow. "But that's not what's bothering me," Carla pointed at the destroyed terminal, "that's the terminal I was supposed to use to destroy the majority of the legion forces," she pointed at the dead Centurion, whose brains were scattered across the metal platform, "he blew it up before we got here."

Raul and Veronica's demeanour shifted to a pessimistic outlook, and Rex folded his ears back.

"We can do this. Boone and the others are good at killing things." Veronica tried to lighten the situation. "How much of them could there be, anyways?"

"Yeah, I guess you're right. Come on, let's go find some NCR troops to help out." The courier felt uneasy as she led them to another area. The ground shook as the Boomers began their strike, and she began to feel reassured.

_'I have a lot of help. Everything will be fine.'_

* * *

Boone and Cass killed off the final few legionaries that the rest of their group couldn't reach. The three of them stood together in the middle of the room, and Boone called out to them.

"We're coming down now. Wait there."

When they regrouped, Cass greedily grabbed Arcade's arm and inspected his weapon.

"What the hell is this freaky thing?"

"I don't know, and I don't feel very safe using it. But if it works I guess I can't complain." Arcade pulled the weapon away from her and tucked it into the leather armour's holster.

The ground began to rumble and everything started to shake with the accompanying sound of explosions on the surface of the dam. The surviving NCR troopers began to leave the area, and Boone started following them.

"Legionaries are coming in massive amounts through the waterway. They can't be stopped." Hopeless NCR troops murmured amongst themselves as they advanced through the dam. Boone cringed at the pessimism, then realized how much his courier companion had rubbed off on him. He let out a soft, low snicker beneath his breath as he checked out the anti-materiel rifle Carla gave to him. Arcade noticed the slight laugh and made a quiet exclamation.

Cass was walking with Lily, while Arcade stuck close to Boone for a sense of security. ED-E hung around the middle of the group, making whirrs and the odd clunk as it hovered. Though the eyebot was repaired and upgraded, it was still broken in some parts and some work still had to be done.

Before they knew it, the shooting began and they were once again plummeted into battle.

Boone pulled out the rifle and took cover at the doorway into the next area. ED-E stuck close to him while everybody else went into the turbine room, giving their best against the next wave of legionaries.

But there seemed to be more than expected this time, and no matter how much NCR troops there were helping them, the group was outnumbered.

_'No. We can do this.'_ Boone thought, disregarding the safety of those trusted to him.

He loaded the explosive rounds and began aiming for the high ranked legionaries. Centurions, Vexillarius, Primes, Decanus, he aimed to destroy formation and scatter the lowly ranked cattle for the slaughter. Lily charged in swinging violently, overpowering and knocking down everything and every legionary that came in her vicinity, leaving bruised and broken forms crumpled on the cement floor. The nightkin was clearing them out with ease, and the plates of metal Carla tied to her seemed to be more efficient than expected.

Arcade and Cass stood against a wall, shooting wildly at anybody Boone or Lily didn't get to. Their support fire was useful, but they seemed to be the least skilled of the group. They were better than Carla in the beginning though, and that was what counted. ED-E supplied Boone with useful cover from threats that aimed for him.

As much as they wanted to believe that they were winning, the bodies of NCR troops piled upon the bodies of legionaries as more legionaries poured in through the tunnels. Lily was being surrounded and shot at relentlessly as she gathered most of the attention from the opposition, while Cass seemed to be struggling a lot more than before. Arcade wore a concerned grimace as he shot away. They were terribly outnumbered, and Boone decided something he didn't want to.

"Fall back! I don't want any of you dying on my watch!"

Usually he was foolhardy as a deathclaw, but watching the others struggle was a sign they had to stop. The sniper attempted to clear a way for Lily to escape through as he motioned for Cass and Arcade to come in through the door.

Cass was wounded badly upon closer inspection. The armour around her stomach was pierced by a shotgun blast and she was limping. Arcade helped her with walking and Boone noticed that Lily hadn't noticed his call to retreat.

He began shooting more frantically before the super mutant turned to the door and started to shout at them.

"Grandma Lily can handle this. Make sure Jimmy is safe, kids."

Boone nodded and closed the door, accepting Lily's request for them to escape. The last glimpse he caught of Lily was her batting away at the legionaries, and her weapon fell out of her grasp as their attack became more vicious. He shuddered and pulled himself away from the door. He wasn't going to let her sacrifice be in vain. Arcade and Cass were running ahead and Boone followed them, taking note of the trail of blood Cass was leaving behind.

They ran through several different corridors before Cass couldn't handle the exertion anymore. The trail of blood could lead anybody to them, and Boone felt that she was weighing him down.

"Where's Lily?" Arcade asked, but it was obvious he knew the answer, so Boone didn't respond. Cass began to sulk and Arcade's expression sank into hopelessness.

"Shit. I need a drink." Cass leaned against Arcade, heaving for air. Arcade didn't seem to be faring well either, but he seemed to be more mentally damaged than anything. With the woman bleeding out slowly in his arms, Boone cruelly decided they were both unfit to help him out.

"Gannon, do you think you can carry her somewhere safe so you can patch her up?" Boone crossed his arms, looking Cass over.

"She can't go any longer. She's done for if she does."

Arcade replied, "Yeah. I can take her somewhere to hide."

"Make sure there's no blood or else their mongrels will sniff you out." Boone rested his rifle on his shoulder as Arcade scooped up the curvy woman with trouble. She scoffed in a daze induced from her injuries.

"More carrying, huh? Shoulda seen it coming."

"What about you, Boone?" Arcade asked as he adjusted her body in his arms.

"I'm going to find Carla. Take the robot, it'll only blow my cover and you'll need it more than me."

Arcade nodded. "Good luck."

Boone returned the gesture and left them to find the courier.

As he silently jogged through the corridors, Boone followed the sounds of gunshots as stealthily as he could. He couldn't afford to be caught, he had to be as sneaky as possible or else he would be surrounded and share the same fate as Lily. He felt on edge and nearly naked in the battle on his own, with only his skill and intuition to keep him from being completely vulnerable. He slung his rifle over his shoulder and unsheathed the broad machete Carla let him use.

He crouched and began the hunt.

A single legionary was holding an area, callously jingling the dogtags of fallen troops by his hand. Contempt grew inside of him as he crept up behind the legionary and rage was released when Boone cupped his hand around their mouth and slid the thick, blackened blade across their abdomen. The only sound was the splatter of viscera on the plated floor.

Boone glared into the legionary's eyes as the last signs of life escaped him and felt nothing as the life of another fleeted away in his arms.

Nothing was a good feeling.

He continued picking them off, mercilessly slicing away at their crimson until their stifled screams for help diminished to gasps for mercy. Boone took no trophies for his kills, the numb satisfaction was enough for him to enjoy. He did not defile their bodies after death because his savage approach on slaying them already left their corpses unrecognizable. He held a very strong vendetta against the Legion, which only grew stronger after witnessing what they had done to the courier named Carla at Bitter Springs.

He got so caught up in stealthily picking off the legionaries he came across that he didn't notice he was being tracked by somebody. With his hands covered in blood, both figuratively and literally, Boone became blissfully ignorant to anything but finding and killing legionary troops until he found his young companion. His pursuer followed just as cautiously as Boone proceeded, keeping an eye out and making sure they weren't discovered. The man in the red beret was crouched around a corner when he heard _creaky shuffling_ from the way he came, so he readied his blade with vicious intent.

_Crack_

Boone whipped around the corner with the blade raised high above his head. He stared down at the person who had been following him, taking deep, heavy breaths from the excitement of the kill. Milky blue eyes stared up at him, and the moustached man flinched in utter fear.

The man instinctively whispered, _"Calme mi amigo!"_

Raul held his hands up to show he was no threat to Boone, and the ex-first recon sniper lowered his blade. He crouched down and beckoned Raul to follow him back to a room where he disposed of a body. They closed the door behind them.

"What are you doing here?" Boone wiped his hands on the leather armour he was wearing.

Raul avoided looking at him. "We couldn't flush out the Legion through the piping because the terminal was broken."

Boone waited for the rest because Raul appeared to be shaken.

"Boss led us to a maintenance tunnel so we could get to the Legate's camp faster. But before we got there some son of a bitch threw a flash grenade at us."

A heavy feeling started to build up in Boone's gut. He began to feel nauseated because he already knew the rest of what Raul had to say.

"They took her and Veronica to the Legate's camp. They killed Rex right in front of her and they made her watch or else they'd shoot me."

"Why did they let you go?" Boone got up and sheathed the machete.

"They told me to find you and take you to the legate."

"Were you followed?"

"No. When they let me go I killed as much of them as I could then made a run for it." Raul slowly stood up and stepped beside Boone. "What are we gonna do?"

"We're going to rescue her." Said Boone.


	12. Cold Blood

It was time to head to the surface in order to get to the Legate's camp. With the bombing increasing with shorter intervals between droppings and the Legion flooding in through the drainage system, it was either be caught and killed by an overwhelming amount of legionaries or get blown to pieces by the Boomer obliteration. The sniper and the ghoul came to a consensus and chose the latter. The surface would be clearer than the interior, and all they needed to do was have impeccable timing between bombings or die trying. The main hit had been done on the dam, leaving most of it set in blazes. They wouldn't be the only ones with the plan to go to the surface, meaning that they could be killed by one out of two things before they reached their goal; the explosions or the Legion.

The thing was... Boone and Raul made a pact that they weren't going to die until they killed the Legate and saved Veronica and Carla.

So they advanced through the floors to higher ground, rushing anybody who came in their way and to their convenience the NCR was in the same tower with them readying themselves for an attempt at crossing the dam.

Once the explosions ceased and the zip of the plane retreating back to the base of the dam, they all bolted out of the tower one by one, making their way to the next tower before the Boomers came around and started bombing. The opposition had the same idea and legionaries did the same. Both sides fought off one another, each one running in the other's direction in an attempt to stop the opposition's goal. Boone and Raul were the last to leave, and for the most part they ignored the fighting and only focussed on getting across the dam.

The explosions started, drowning out the sounds of battle cries and gunfire. Soon all sound was replaced by a disorienting ring from the close proximity explosions, shrapnel dug into any exposed parts of their skin and seared their flesh. Because they weren't shooting, it was as if Boone and Raul were invisible with all the aggression directed towards the NCR.

They reached the first tower along with a couple of troopers who caught onto their scheme. The world seemed to shake as the Boomers passed by and with thumping hearts from the adrenaline, the courier's companions raced for the next tower. This time wasn't as easy since not much of the troops made it that far, so any Legion forces who were waiting directed their fire at all of them.

Raul pulled the .45 out of its holster and dispatched of the legionaries that proved to be threats as the troopers that followed them dealt with the other ones. Once they reached the next tower they took cover for a minute to catch their breath.

"Raul, let's go straight for the checkpoint. We don't have time to go for the next tower." He shouted as loud as he could, which was barely enough for both of them to hear. Boone leant with his back against the cement wall, while Raul was picking off anybody near the checkpoint.

"Got it, pal." Was what Raul mouthed to him.

"Let's go... Now!" Raul went first and kept shooting with his injured arm. Boone picked up his pace as he saw the Lady in the Water fly by overhead, sensing that it was about to start another barrage of bombing.

The light was blinding, it was hard to keep their footing.

The impact was burning, it was difficult to remain composure when his leg was ripped to shreds.

Both engulfed in fire and pain, Raul was thrown backwards and slammed into the ground, choking on the surprise of the strike. His body was fine, his leg was not. With blood everywhere, Boone took him by the shoulder plate and heaved him up off the ground. He slung Raul's arm over his shoulder, and the ghoul managed to keep hold of his gun. The troopers that were following them weren't as lucky, their bodies weren't even on the dam anymore and what was left scattered was among other pieces of obliterated bodies.

Raul continued shooting at anybody who managed to avoid the blast until they passed the barricade. There was a staircase nearby that they used for cover and to inspect Raul's wound. He cursed in spanish relentlessly and seemed more worked up about being a liability rather than almost losing his leg.

"How many stimpacks do you have left?" Boone asked the other deafened man.

"Those bastards took 'em from me." Raul held the exposed muscle closed, he pushed the whites of his bone back into where it felt like it should fit. His left leg was torn right open with only the burns from the explosion keeping him from bleeding out. He pulled shrapnel out of his wounds while Boone rifled through his pack for some stimpacks to give to Raul.

He put them on the ground beside the ghoul and pulled out his rifle to begin the slaughter once more. Raul injected himself while Boone carefully aimed for the eight legionaries that were unaware of their presence and took them out one by one.

He took slow, steady breaths.

He exhaled until their was no more breath left to push out.

He was still, frozen in time. He wrapped his fingers around the trigger and squeezed it steadily, sending the bullet soaring through the air. The first legionary fell to the ground, alerting those around him. It did not matter, because the spot on the staircase was perfect cover with the onslaught of explosions relentlessly pelting the bridge. It obscured their position.

After killing three more legionaries they caught onto his position, and Raul was done injecting himself with the stimpacks. They recovered their hearing slightly and no longer had to shout at one another to communicate. The legionaries began crossing towards them because the Boomers were finished with their assault, leaving the surface of the dam fair game.

"Do you think you can make it to the other side of the dam?" Boone stood up, still staring down his scope. He gave one of the legionaries a non-lethal wound that would slightly hinder their advance.

"Sure can, pal. I've been hurt worse before." He got up shakily and leant on the railing for support.

"With all these bombs there's radiation all over." He limped down the steps, and Boone couldn't imagine managing to continue to walk with a wound like that. Ghouls were certainly a bewildering phenomenon.

Raul slung out his .45 and gave Boone support fire while he sniped out the five incoming legionaries. Raul took three of them out with ease and Boone took care of the immediate threats. It was only a matter of time before they came for them once more because of the sounds of their controlled gunshots stood out from the rest, considering everything passed the checkpoint was a lot calmer than the first half of the dam. Boone helped Raul down the stairs and they began to make their way to the Legate's camp.

Once they were on the rocky surface that secured the dam, Boone let go of Raul and let him walk for himself. In the nearby pathway, which was obscured by boulders, Boone motioned for Raul to wait and went ahead himself. There was a gate leading to the camp, and on the top of the gate stood a legionary on watch.

He spotted Boone. He started to turn the lever that would open the gate, and Boone could already tell that this was a trap. Before the door was open, he ran back and grabbed Raul, violently pulling him back to somewhere they could find cover.

Better hurt than dead. Raul was reloading his weapon once Boone so thoughtfully threw him down against a the side of the dam.. Boone rested the anti-materiel rifle on the cement guarding and reloaded as well, waiting for the gate to completely open so the legionaries could come to them. He started his ritual for shooting, but none of the legionaries that emerged from the gate were wielding weapons. They held their hands up in the air to signify compliance, and a Vexillarius strut towards the duo. Once he came in earshot he called out to them.

"Kill any of us and we will execute the courier and the woman."

Raul rested his weapon and stared up at Boone, who still seemed keen on killing the large group of legionaries that stood before them.

"What are we going to do, pal?" He asked, and Boone was unsure of what action to take.

"They're unarmed." Boone lurched, thinking of every possibility that was presented to him. They could be concealing weapons that they were planning to beat Raul and him down with, but upon closer inspection with his scope he couldn't find evidence of this. There had to be more in the camp then, waiting to get the jump on them, waiting to capture all of them and kill the Mojave's last hopes in the feud between factions.

_'Carla...'_

It would all be in vain if he gave up now. He glared down the scope and aimed for the Vexillarius in front of him, the cross hairs highlighting the area between his eyebrows.

Raul choked out something incomprehensible, and Boone felt the cold metal of the barrel of a gun push against his head.

"The legate ordered us not to shoot you, profligate. I suggest you put down your weapons and lay on the ground."

Boone turned to look behind him and saw that there were six of them standing behind them, all of them with their weapons ready.

But Boone knew that they were ordered not to shoot him and Raul, so he decided he wasn't going down with a fight. He put the machete on the ground down and grabbed the anti-materiel rifle off the cement guard by the barrel. He clicked the safety and placed it on the ground as Raul was flattening his body out on the pavement. In a swift, hard motion Boone gripped the rifle and swung it upwards towards the legionnaire's chin, knocking the butt of the rifle straight on his jaw. He fell to the ground, stunned by the blow. Boone started swinging for the next one, but before he could one of them got around him and knocked him down to the ground before he knew it.

They pried his weapon from his hands and bashed him on the back of his head, knocking him out cold.

* * *

His vision was hazy and the world was spinning when he regained consciousness. Boone was curled up in fetal position, laying on red soil in a fenced off area. He blinked sand out of his eyes and sat up, realizing that he had been stripped of all equipment. He sat up and patted himself down. He was wearing nothing but unmarked slave rags, but other than a headache he was completely unharmed. He stood up to look around. There were legionaries standing on elevated ground, all of them hooting wildly as a deep voice announced him regaining consciousness.

He looked around and realized where he was. He was in The Fort.

Caesar stood amongst the crowd, proudly peering upon the gate which was being open, then at the man who stepped inside the arena.

The Legate stood before Boone, towering above the man. He was unarmed and wore nothing but slave rags as well with the exception of his signature mask. Boone stepped back until there was an equal distance between the middle for the both of them. The Legate raised his fists and changed his stance, bracing himself for battle.

Boone copied his gait, balling his fists and preparing himself for battle. Right now he wished that he had training in hand-to-hand combat.

"Prepare to die with the highest honour of all, profligate; by the hands of Legate Lanius!" Caesar announced, and the battle began.


	13. Feel The Soil Falling Over My Head

Boone charged in for the first hit when Lanius was ready. It was now or never. He had to give his best because there was no choice for him to give up. Boone swiped for the tall man's neck, knowing that the chunky mask he was wearing gave the Legate an unfair advantage.

He missed.

* * *

Carla was in Caesar's tent with Veronica and the horribly wounded Raul. Rex's body lay on the floor before them, his brain casing smashed open with chunks of it missing, his legs broken and body misshapen and pulled out of place... it was a terrible sight. Veronica had her face buried into Courier's shoulder as she wept quietly for Boone's sake and the imminent death by beating that awaited them. Raul was placed across the room from them with his leg covered in atom-knows-what, making his ordeal much more agonizingly painful than it was before. Nobody was in the tent with them. Any Legion soldiers that remained were watching the fight between Boone and the Legate.

Carla noticed a sharp piece of loose metal sticking out of Rex's corpse that would be perfect for cutting her binds. She threw herself onto the ground and rolled over to the dog, catching Veronica and Raul's attention.

"Sorry, buddy."

* * *

Boone grunted as the Legate pummelled him in quick succession, thwarting his every attempt at trying to counter him. The ex-first recon sniper soon realized that he was no match for the Legate and he had to be more strategic to even get the slightest sliver of survival.

He slid out of the way of a left hook and moved backwards when the Legate went in for a right swing. After successfully dodging two blows, Boone managed to kick the Legate in the leg to make him stumble, and then confidently, Boone punched him square across the jaw, temporarily stunning the large man. He got away from him after getting in a second hit because he didn't want to get too cocky.

Maybe it wouldn't be too hard to survive this after all.

* * *

Carla rubbed the ties around her wrists against the sharp metal after finally getting back up to her knees. She cut herself a few times attempting to undo the ties on her arms, ending up covered in both hers and Rex's blood. She undid the binds on her feet and went to untie Raul and Veronica, who both wore a readied expression when she came to them.

Courier took a piece of Caesar's bedding to wipe up Raul's leg, which she discovered was coated in sand, cactus pines and what smelled like silver sting by the sadistic bastards. She grabbed another piece of bedding and tightly wrapped his wound up after piecing him together.

"Thanks, Boss." Raul stayed sitting down since the poison made his condition much worse than before.

Carla looked through Caesar's things and couldn't find any weapons. It would be foolish to rush out there alone and unarmed, so it was time to think of a plan.

"Veronica, Raul, pretend that you're still tied up in the same spot you were sitting." Carla said.

She took one of the chairs in the far side of the tent where Caesar's bed was and smashed it on the floor, making a loud noise that alerted the guards outside.

* * *

A large fist tore through the air when he was off guard, knocking Boone on the side of the head and straight to the ground. He scrambled to get up, but was only greeted with a kick to the gut. With the next kick, Boone grabbed the Legate's ankle and with all of his might he pulled the man down with him. Boone threw his body on top of of the Legate's and slammed his fists down indefinitely, hitting him with all he had. Before Lanius could get him off, Boone took the helmet off of his opponent, revealing a long haired, bearded man.

"You're uglier than I pictured you!" Boone remarked as he threw the helmet across the arena. He was pushed off of the man shortly after, who was now equally bloodied and bruised as Boone was. They slunk back to their starting positions, warily staring each other in the eyes with heightened animosity.

The Legate balled his fists together and charged at Boone. The sniper lowered his stance and went in to tackle Lanius. They clashed together as two different storms, creating an uproar in all of the legionaries that watched.

* * *

A Prime legionary came in the tent with a Decanus, both of them immediately alerted when they saw that the courier was gone. They looked around the tent, and when the Prime came to her hiding place in Caesar's addition to the tent, she smashed him over the head with a chair from around the corner. She took his weapons quietly before the guard noticed his ally was down. When the Decanus realized he was under attack it was too late, because the courier had the caravan shotgun pointed at him.

"Drop your weapons or I'll kill you where you stand." She said as she slid the machete to Veronica.

The Decanus did not comply. He chuckled from behind his mask as he unholstered his gun, he was standing in front of Raul. "Too bad that woman can't undo her bindings before I shoot you both."

Raul kicked him, knocking him off balance. Veronica was up before he knew it and was cruelly slicing away at his body.

The sudden uproar of cheers worried the Courier.

* * *

The Legate had Boone thrust against the wall with his hand wrapped around the smaller man's neck. His grip was loose enough for him to breathe shallowly, but tight enough for him to struggle for air. He plunged his free hand into Boone's abdomen, digging deep into the soft flesh of his stomach with his fist.

Boone kicked and reached for him, but the Legate was positioned too far from him. With each punch, the sniper let out a pained grunt that only got worse and worse. Lanius tightened his grasp around his throat, ceasing the expulsion of sound. He lifted him away from the wall and raised the smaller man as high as he could.

Boone was limp, but he knew this was the perfect time to strike. The Legate pulled him closer to his body for a moment to charge up how far he was going to throw the other man, and in that moment Boone swung his leg back and heaved his knee up as hard as he could, making a hard impact against the Legate's face.

The attack only made Lanius even more angered, It made no difference, the Legate held strong and proceeded to tighten his grasp around Boone's neck, constricting his blood and bending his vessels, slowly crushing his trachea and completely hindering any attempt at gasping for air.

He sent Boone plowing into the ground.

* * *

Courier had taken off her Pipboy and gave it to Raul to find the NCR emergency channel. She was sharpening the machete to the point until it was immaculate. She did not have time to dawdle because Boone didn't have much time left.

Quiet chatter could be heard where Raul was sitting and he spoke lowly, "I found the channel, Boss. They're headed for the Fort now and will be here within the hour."

"We don't have an hour..." She mumbled to herself.

Carla stood up and went for the entrance of the tent. Veronica called out after her,

"What are you doing?"

"I... I'm not sure."

* * *

The Legate was releasing a fury of attacks on Boone, and the sniper could feel what power was left inside of him fleeting away with every blow. He was done for. It was finally time he was able to die.

He laughed to himself, he laughed at the world.

The Legate took a step back from him, his chest heaving from the exhilaration of the fight. Boone took his stance as a signal to stand, but he couldn't find it in him to do so.

"I see." Said Lanius, "I must execute you now."

Boone sighed and closed his eyes, his last thought being the image of the woman he loved. The Legate came forward to the weakened man and raised his foot above Boone's head.

Just then, a series of gasps and frightened exclamations replaced the hollering and excited shouts of the spectating legionaries.

The head of a white haired man was hurled into the arena right where Lanius was standing. Boone looked at the head with wonder, realizing that it was the head of Caesar himself. He broke into a fit of bitter laughter.

_'Thumbs down, you son of a bitch.'_

Lanius took a step away from the man on the ground and looked up at where the head of the Mighty Caesar came from. Standing at the top of the hill was the red haired, black eyed courier six, smugly standing over three corpses, one of which being Caesar's. Every single legionnaire spectating had their guns pointed at the girl.

She leaped into the arena and ran between Boone and Lanius. She broadened her stance and opened her arms, creating a human shield between the two men. She stared into the Legate's eyes with so much contempt, anger and bloodlust it was hard to believe such a young girl could contain and emit such raw emotion.

Boone reached out for her and brushed his fingertips against her leg.

"Carla..."

"I am here to save my companion." She fiercely announced. She had a presence that was one of the most terrifying the Legate has experienced. He raised his hand and motioned for the troops to yield. He wanted to hear her out, he wanted her to humour him.

She stood there, searching for her words. Boone had no idea how she would approach this situation. It was one of two options, either she would take the diplomatic, peaceful way or she would do the typical, _Carla_ thing she always did. The Legate peered down at her, a smug sneer growing on his face with each passing second.

She spoke.

It was what Boone expected.

She took the Carla approach.

"I can't wait to take that stupid helmet of yours as my big, fat ugly trophy after killing you."

Boone closed his eyes.

_'What a way of words.'_ He thought.

The Legate opened his arms and beckoned to all of the legionaries watching. He bellowed, telling them not to interfere. She didn't move from her spot in front of Boone, instead she asked him to stand behind her and move with her as she moved. She discarded the machete and they started.

The Legate was fast, faster than she could imagine. He swung hard, but every time he tried to get her she would move out of the way. Carla saw openings that Boone never saw when he was fighting him, and she hit him in ways that got a reaction out of the Legate.

She never got hit, and her strikes were piercing. He would be stunned, the Legate would stumble away only to come charging back for more, but she already knew what he had coming for her. She used her knees, her feet, her elbows and fists. Carla would deliver effective crosses and uppercuts that seemed like they were bone shattering.

Boone found himself asking who this girl before him actually was once again.

Soon, the Legate was changing his tactics. He went faster and changed it up. He was reading her as well as she read him, but she didn't falter. It became obvious she was going easy on him.

Then, she was hit. She struggled to stay standing but she moved away quick enough and used the stumble to her advantage. The Legate smirked when he saw the struggle and he began to go harder on the girl. It was gruelling for Boone to keep up with her movements even though he knew it left them with a tactical advantage. The Legate couldn't get him and the legionaries would have a hard time getting to her between him and the Legate. If all else failed, Boone could move her out of the way if something came to hit her, or take over if Lanius hurt her too much.

She still seemed delicate, but was skilled. She was like glass; sharp but easily broken.

As Caesar's head lolled from side to side on the trembling ground, the courier and Legate swiped at each other mercilessly. There were no cheers around the arena anymore. Everybody spectating had their guns pointed at the girl and the air loomed with a hefty, dark aura. Even if the courier lost this fight, the Legion would lose this war.

It came torpedoing through the air at an alarming speed.

Boone grabbed her hips and pulled her away. She was light as a feather as he twisted around and shoved her down.

He sputtered and coughed as the spear pierced his back and made an exit out the middle of his chest. His blood splashed gently on the ground and her eyes widened and mouth fell agape as he fell. Lanius' laughter was faint underneath her bloodcurdling screams. As she pulled him out of the way and dragged him to the wall while Lanius wickedly guffawed at the sight. Boone sat at his knees with his head resting against the wall of the arena. He was shaking as the slave rags he was wearing soaked in red, she took the base of the spear and snapped it in two. Carla touchily patted the area around the spot the spear impaled him, her sobs sending him deeper and deeper into despair.

_"Don't close your eyes."_ She said.

_"You're going to be okay."_ She said

_"I'm getting you out of here."_ She said

Boone knew the last two statements weren't true, so he kept his eyes open in spite of the painfully obvious fact that they all were going to die here.

Carla went for the machete and the Legate stood where he was before, looking severely unimpressed. She slunk back over to Boone when she grabbed it and huddled close to his body, warily watching the Legate.

"Do you not wish to fight?"

"I have to protect my beloved." She replied.

"How will you do that when you're being shot at and speared by more than thirty armed Legionaries?" The Legate raised his arms and narrowed his eyes. "You have no chance of survival."

She stared up at the bearded man and spat.

"Fuck you!" She howled.

They burst out of the tent after overhearing the Legate's words. Raul and Veronica shot at the legionaries equipped with guns. As the shooting began, the Legate came running for her. He tried disarming her by twisting her arm, but she countered it by knocking his arm away, jamming him with the hilt of the blade and cutting him along the way.

She kicked him away with all of her might as bullets bounced off the ground around them. Holding the base of the machete with both hands, Carla stepped forward and swept it in an downwards motion through the Legate's abdomen, pushing deeper and deeper as the blade moved across his body.

Lanius was finished. He was already dead. Carla pulled the machete out of him, deciding to thoroughly ensure his death. She pressed the blade against his neck as he hunched over. He placed his hands on her, trying so hard to hurt her before his demise but couldn't find the strength within him to do so.

"_You..._ What kind of _woman_ are you?" The Legate said before she was done with him.

She didn't answer him, instead she made the final move and cut his neck as deep as she could. He bled, and she threw the blade away. Now that he was dead, the legionaries focussed their fire on her as she went back for Boone.

Carla wrapped her arms around him as bullets flew in every direction. Some of them punctured her, the fight with the Legate leaving her rushing with adrenaline and seeing Boone dying before her left the girl numb with no desire to keep on living. His breathing was slow and he writhed as she pressed herself against him. As bullets made their way into her back and legs, Carla shut her eyes and listened to Boone's heartbeat under the barrage of fire.

Veronica and Raul were getting no less of a punishment, but they managed to strip the Decanus and Prime of the most durable and versatile parts of their armour, supplying them with some form of resistance against the barrage of bullets.

It was all over for the courier's entourage. She cursed at herself for not taking proper precaution and maybe they wouldn't have been captured. Rex was dead and she had no idea where Lily, Arcade and Cass were.

This was the end.

An explosion from the direction of the drawbridge snuffed out all of the sound in the area. Immediately after the legionaries changed their attention to someone else; the sounds of semi-automatic rifles and hand grenades replaced the slow pace of lever-action and constant reloading. The NCR had arrived, and within a small amount of time every legionnaire in the Fort was dead.

She shook Boone excitedly once the fighting was over, "We did it, Boone! It's over." she said, but he didn't make any response.

It had gotten so loud that when everything calmed down, Carla hadn't noticed that Boone's heart stopped beating. She pulled him off of the wall and felt his face for warmth, anywhere for warmth to indicate how long ago he died. She frantically attempted to resuscitate him with CPR, but she was too injured and alarmed to focus on controlling herself. She screamed for help and the medics came rushing to their aid.

His eyes were still open like she asked him to.

When they tried prioritizing her wounds before reviving Boone she had a violent outburst. She thrashed and kicked as they pulled her away from him, screaming at the top of her lungs to save his life and not to worry about her. It took four rangers to carry her out of there, four of the NCR's biggest men to take her away from the corpse of her Boone. They looked sympathetic because their relationship was iconic in the eyes of the NCR; one half of the Mojave's heroes just died and there was nothing anyone could do.

The last thing she saw was a medic pulling out a body bag to put him in before she was sedated.


	14. Happy Birthday

It was the courier's birthday today and it was time to say goodbye to the companions she lost at the battle of Hoover Dam. She was cloaked entirely in black and wore a fancy veiled hat that covered the sad expression she wore, like some pre-war widow who had lost everything. Arcade told her not to wear her beret because it was a funeral and it was tradition to only wear black, so she listened. He was the only one who trumped her when it came to intelligence and knowledge.

Nobody knew it was her birthday, she decided to bring it up with her surviving friends after the funeral. Cass, Arcade, Raul and Veronica were the only ones there to see the funeral, they sat in the other room chit chatting quietly because they were under the impression that she was sleeping.

She was curled up on a dingy bed that smelled of an uncountable amount of other people's sweat, saliva and other bodily fluids that she preferred not to think about. She held the beret by her face and traced the contours over and over with her fingers and eyes. Veronica gave her a haircut, now Carla's hair didn't cover the scar on her cheek anymore after the haircut.

Cass tapped on the busted door frame to catch her attention.

"Get up, everything's ready."

"'Kay, Cass." Carla said as she stood up.

Cass was wearing a more than slightly revealing dress that showed off a little bit too much leg. Arcade was wearing a nice suit with fancy shoes that Courier found in House's suite. She didn't bother telling him where she found them. Veronica wore a gown and even wasn't wearing that ratty burlap hood. She looked very happy and pleased with the dress Carla supplied her. Raul had a cane to support his messed up leg while it healed and was wearing a suit similar to Arcade's.

The courier was wearing a plain black dress that draped a little past her knees. Everybody was carrying their gifts for their deceased companions in either their hands or pockets.

"You know the way, Boss." Raul linked arms with her.

The first step outside was just like the last time she took foot in Goodsprings. The sunlight blinded her to the point she couldn't move, not even the veil helped her eyes adjust to the sun. She squinted after shielding her eyes with her hand and Raul chuckled a little.

"Bright, huh?"

"Mhmm. Just like last time." She walked slowly, making sure not to rush him as they headed to the cemetery up the hill.

But it was nothing like last time. Last time it was her first time in the Mojave for all she remembered, last time she was bitter and hated everybody involved in the first time she died. Last time she knew nobody and had not a single person she could call a friend. Even with the fragments of memory she had of her old self, Carla couldn't remember interacting with others unless it had something to do with a job or delivery. Sure, she was charming and sure she enticed others that might've thought of her now and then but that was nothing compared to the bonds she had with her companions now.

Nobody was ready to die for her like these guys were. They were her soul mates.

As they made their way up the hill the wind picked up and she thought of it as a sign from the universe to have a good birthday, despite the funeral coincidently being placed on the same date. It made her especially sad that Boone wasn't there to comfort her.

Two freshly dug and buried graves sat on the top of the hill while Sunny Smiles stood there with a few other Goodsprings settlers holding shovels waiting for the courier and her companions to reach the burial site. They left once the town's guests huddled around the graves.

Despite the harsh nature of the day, the sun shined brighter than anyday Courier could remember in the wasteland. It made wearing black especially hard. Rex's grave was very small compared to the other and The King supplied Carla with a Kings jumper to adorn his dog's grave with, so before the service the girl tied the sleeves of the jumper around the cross to make a flag. She sulked when she was once again reminded of the terrible way he died. They never recovered Lily's body from the dam and were still looking for her remains, but according to Cass and Arcade the nightkin died an honourable death in the name of peace and humanity.

The five of them stood in front of the two graves at a loss of words. Carla had never been to a funeral before, Arcade only knew the proper attire and Cass wasn't as classy as she pretended to be. Raul was the only one alive back when things were civilized, but he wasn't too good at anything but smooth talk and telling old stories.

"What's there to do at a funeral?" The courier finally asked.

Arcade answered the question, "Well, we usually prepare a eulogy before the service that talks about how that person was in life, leave gifts and...mourn quietly."

It wasn't satisfying, and Carla decided that a funeral was a bad, lame idea.

"That's stupid." She said plainly.

Raul scratched his flaky head, "I never liked going to funerals back in the day."

Then they all stood in silence once again, before Veronica decided to lighten the mood.

"Remember when Lily would pick on us for not eating enough of her raw meat, Raul?"

"I always told her, _'Lady, I'm not touching that stuff till it's put back in the oven for another hour.'_ and she wouldn't listen." Raul laughed under his breath.

Cass sighed, but she was grinning, "I would always have to stop her because Arcade was too busy messing around with Rex. Sometimes I thought she was gonna kill me."

"I was just studying him. He never took a liking to me and I have the scars to prove it." Arcade rolled up his sleeve to show off one of his nastier scars from Rex. They all cringed, but in a happy way.

The courier chimed in, "No, Rex loved you all. Especially you, Gannon. He slept with you every time I left without him or was laying beside your bed."

Veronica shoved Arcade a little bit and he didn't appreciate the gesture, "Those are love bites, haha!"

He fixed his glasses and crossed his arms. Arcade reached into his pocket and took out a screwdriver, then jammed it into Rex's plot. Everybody looked amused and stunned after he did that, all of them searching for something to say.

"That was my..."

Cass broke out into laughter, "You bastard!"

They all chuckled for a while, but Carla stayed relatively quiet while they chatted away. She was happy they weren't taking it as hard as she did, but she could tell that they were tiptoeing around the subject of Boone. Every time something related to him was brought up they got quiet and changed the subject, which she appreciated.

"You look lonely, Boss." Raul patted her back.

"I'm just not used to being without..." She clutched the beret in her hand tightly and raised it to show Raul, "...him for so long."

He looked a little sympathetic but reassured her by smiling that funny ghoul smile. "I know he would want to be here with you."

It didn't help, so she just rested her head on Raul's shoulder and closed her eyes. The ghoul wrapped his arm around her waist to comfort her while she quietly mourned. Soon the chatter stopped and they were all quiet again, the memories they spoke of replacing the somber nature of a funeral with a vivacious spark instead of a foreboding air. It was a celebration of life.

After the heat became too much for her companions, they placed down the rest of the gifts they brought and descended the hill, leaving the courier alone in the cemetery.

She took the fancy veiled hat off and stuffed it into her dress, then replaced it with the first recon beret Boone gave her. She tugged it on to snugly fit around her head, and thanks to the haircut Veronica gave her it fit perfectly like the first time she wore it. She sighed as she ran her hands down the sides of her face and traced the scar on her cheek as she passed it.

It was the first gift Boone had given to her; the scar. The second gift was his trust, the third being his companionship and the fourth being the beret, now thinking back to then, he gave it to her endearingly. Her stomach fluttered and tears bit at the corners of her eyes. Carla made her way down the hill and said goodbye to the two graves.

She stood in front of the house that the Goodsprings settlers left vacant for her and her companions to stay in. The courier prepared herself for telling them it was her birthday and braced herself for the attack of sympathy they were going to give her.

Carla opened the door and a surprise awaited her on the other side.

Everybody was wearing a party hat and shouted 'happy birthday' when she entered the teeny tiny house. She flushed red and turned away, but Arcade was hiding around the other side of the door and shut it before she could escape.

"How did you know?" She kicked the floor lightly, avoiding eye contact with anyone. Arcade gave her a party hat to wear before joining the others.

Raul raised his hand and his lips creased into a smirk. "When I was fiddling with your Pipboy back at the Fort I found a note about your memories."

She balled her fists and grumbled light heartedly, "You went through my stuff?"

She sighed, Carla knew he wouldn't tell a soul what he found in her notes, but was a little embarrassed by the nature of what she wrote; anything she remembered about her past was jotted down... _anything._

"That's okay." Courier mumbled as she pulled the veiled hat out of her dress and tossed it onto a shelf. They ushered her to a table that had a freshly made cake sitting in the middle. Raul and Cass were already treating themselves to drinks.

Veronica sat beside her and held a handful of waxy sticks. She whispered shamefully, though there was nothing to be ashamed of, "We didn't know how many candles to light because you never told us how old you were."

"Oh, I'm turning nineteen today."

Raul sputtered on his mouthful of alcohol when he heard how old the courier was. Arcade triumphantly pushed up his glasses as Cass bitterly shoved a handful of caps into his hand.

"You made wagers?" Courier asked in awe.

Veronica nodded bashfully as she slid a couple of caps across the table to Arcade. Raul did the same as he recovered from choking on his booze.

Arcade shrugged, "I had no intention of keeping the caps, but I couldn't resist. Gambling isn't my kind of thing, as you know."

He put the money onto the table for everyone that lost to take their caps back.

"How long have you been a courier?" Veronica asked.

"Since I was fourteen."

Raul rested his glass and sat down, animatedly fanning himself, "You're giving me a heart attack, Boss."

Carla the Courier threw her arms up in the air, sighing loudly about the situation.

"Well, how old did you guys think I was?"

None of them answered, they just smiled coyly and Veronica started to light the candles.

Despite bugging her about how young she was, Carla was actually getting excited about having an actual birthday party; she couldn't remember the last time she had one. When the last candle was lit, Arcade turned off the lights and the room was dimly illuminated by the nineteen makeshift candles in the cake.

As they sang Happy Birthday she couldn't help but think of Boone. Her lip quivered when she found the thought of him invaded her mind, she trembled lightly in the darkness where she felt safe from the others' prying gazes. They were smiling, she could hear it in their voices, and in their voices she heard some kind of deception.

When the song was over she blew out the candles and they all knew what she wished for.

She wished Boone was there with her, with his sulk and monotonous voice that had undertones of displeasure, his covered eyes and sullen air. His lack of words but immaculate skill at communicating with her and how he so valiantly covered up his vulnerability with a hard stone wall that the courier managed to chisel through with the power of love.

She wished that Boone was by her side so full heartedly that she didn't realize they all left the room. Maybe they realized that she was crying and needed some time alone, but they could have at least turned on the light.

A light set of footsteps approached the room from down the hall, they were steady and controlled. It sounded like the person had a slight limp.

Courier cleared her throat, but she knew that she wasn't fooling anyone. "Arcade and I told you to use your cane until your leg gets better, Raul."

The steps stopped once they reached the back of her chair, Carla could hear some troubled breathing from the person behind her.

Her heart jumped up against her chest when she heard the voice that accompanied the figure.

"What was buried in Lily's grave?"

Tears streaked down her cheeks and she bit her fingers to control her sobbing, _"We... we buried her bumper sword and h-h-hat!"_

She keeled over and cried loudly in her lap, eyes welling in tears and body heaving from her sobs. The figure lowered to his knee and wrapped his arms around the chair and her waist to calm the girl down. She whimpered when her sobs died down and breathed in short bursts when her whimpers stopped.

They sat quietly until her crying ceased, in that time he intwined his fingers with hers and tightly held to her. He rocked only slightly to calm her nerves, and once absolute silence was achieved he released her and stood up. He took her hand, taking Carla up and out of the house.

They walked around town in silence hand in hand, glancing at the other every once in a while.

"What are you going to do now that the Legion has headed back east?"

"I'm reenlisting once my wounds heal, but in the meantime I wanted to know if I can spend time with... you." He said with a smile that fit perfectly on his face.

"Of course." She leaned up against him, cradling his arm on her body. They made their way to the wells where they sat down and watched geckos from afar. She tried thinking of things to say, all of which revolved around how they both died and defied death by continuing to live.

"What are you doing after?" He asked.

"Probably be a courier again." She said with her head rested on his shoulder.

"That's it?" He sounded unimpressed by her choice. She retorted- politely.

"You're not going to be around, being a courier is all I know." She could feel that he was becoming disappointed with each word she spoke. He squeezed her hand before he opened his mouth again.

"Why not..." He stopped himself from completing his sentence. Courier thought it was funny that he was tripping over his words after hearing what she had to say about her plans. She took this as an opportunity to bother him.

"Why not what?" She bumped him a little with a teasing tone.

He mumbled something incomprehensible under his breath. Courier giggled and turned to face him. He was already looking at her.

Quietly, she asked him what he said. The man took his shades off and leaned in close to her, and like every time he did that a little gasp escaped from her lips. He pulled her into a kiss that was unlike any other kiss they've shared. He caressed her hair, held her close to his body and traced his fingers along her face. He didn't only kiss her lips but he planted pecks on her cheeks and jaw, overwhelming her entirely.

He pulled away slightly, but his lips were still brushing against hers when he said it.

"Will you marry me?"

"Boone... I would love to."

They embraced on the hill by the well, and without knowing it the two started something beautiful yet again.

* * *

**Oh yeah yeah yeah Happy Ending!**

**Write Reviews, send requests and be sure to read the alternate ending if this ending was too good to be true!**

**Thanks for reading, my fellow fans! :)**


	15. Alternate Ending: Beautiful Friend

**Note:** Hey guys, make sure to read the real ending too!

Unless... You want this to be the real ending :B

* * *

Cold metal bit at her exposed skin in the concourse building back at Camp Mccarran. Bleak screens surrounded her and a series of tubes invaded her veins and pumped sugar water and Med-X into her body, along with anti-biotics. She was human now, she wasn't rushing with an excess amount of chemicals from exertion anymore. Carla felt ordinary now- with a side of infected bullet wounds and speckling bruises.

_'How long have I been asleep?'_ She cringed as she sat up, clenching her fists and digging her nails into her palms.

It was always quiet in the Mccarran concourse, most likely today especially. Anyone who wasn't wounded or dead was probably celebrating in Vegas and wrecking havoc all throughout Freeside. All of the NCR hospitals were probably chalk full of the wounded after the battle of Hoover Dam.

Carla pulled the IVs from her arms and tossed her legs over the side of the ratty bed. She could make out the silhouettes of soldiers on both sides of her screens and could hear their breathing faintly. The atmosphere was grey and sullen, so sterile that it wiped away all emotion that lingered.

It hurt to walk, it was as if she was possessed. None of her actions were by her own accord, she had something to settle before letting the doctor hook her back up to the machine.

The morgue was on the other side of the medical bay, beckoning to her, practically calling out her name.

Carla pulled out the drawers one by one, absently looking over the dead bodies of faceless NCR soldiers. They didn't matter, none of them mattered. She climbed on their bodies to reach the higher drawers because they were no longer people in her eyes, they were objects that just hindered her progress at completing her objective.

The last drawer she touched sent a shock that resonated through her fingers and rippled through her body, Tingles electrified her entire form and she tugged on the handle to release the corpse inside to the air.

His toes, his soles and his ankles came out and she already knew who it was.

His knees and thighs and waist became exposed and she lost her ability to breathe.

His shoulders and neck and head revealed a lifeless, grey and cold version of her greatest companion.

His dead body brought her deepest fears to life.

Courier pulled him down off the metal sheet into her arms, and since he was too heavy she stumbled and fell to the floor as she slipped on the bodies and drawers that she was defiling as footing. She hurt herself, but she didn't care. He was heavier than she remembered, he felt so clammy that she almost didn't want to touch him. She cradled his head against her chest and wept without making a sound.

From what she could tell he died from blood loss, judging by the wound the bleeding was internal.

She thought of his last moments and wondered if he appreciated being held by her as he died. The way he shuddered when she wrapped her arms around him could have been from pain, but it also could have come from wanting to be alone. Were his last thoughts full of regret, or was he glad that he died in the name of the NCR? Did he think about her or did he think about his wife? It didn't matter now, because Boone was dead.

She rubbed her hands on his buzzed hair and on his soft features. She traced her finger along the bridge of his nose and felt his eyelids and lips. Tears fell on his face and ran down his cheeks as if he was crying with her, giving her a general idea what he would look like if he was crying; his face looked less angry at the world and more lonesome and somber than it usually did.

She ignored the pitter patter of footsteps approaching the area. The tiny Doctor Kemp stood before the slovenly scene, appalled by the sight of NCR bodies pulled out of their drawers and laying in disarray. He was most shocked by the courier sitting on the floor cradling a corpse.

Instead of being mad, the doctor clasped his hands together and spoke to her with sympathy, "I was told that you would look for him, but I didn't think you would go so far..,"he walked up to her and motioned towards his desk, "would you like to have his belongings? I was told that you would appre-"

"I want them." She demanded. "Please."

"Well, when you're ready go back to bed and I'll give them to you."

Courier spent another little while with Boone before heading back to bed. She hooked the IVs back up to her arm by herself and waited for Doctor Kemp to give her Boone's belongings. The man brought her the anti-materiel rifle, his hat, his sunglasses, a handful of .50 rounds and his armour in a sack. It was then she realized that he left his hunting rifle back in her suite in Novac. She put the first recon beret beside her and the sunglasses underneath. The doctor left her side to treat other patients and eventually fix the morgue.

She dug through the bag over and over, convinced that something else would be inside other than the obvious things.

After rifling around multiple times, Carla felt a piece of paper brush against her fingers. She pulled it out of the bag, realizing it was a crumpled envelope.

On the back it said_ 'For Carla,'_

_Carla,_

_If yout be much but it should help you and the baby get by. Want you to remarry when you meet the right person..._

She closed her eyes and only skimmed over the rest-

_...Not sure the right way to say how I feel about you. Think you know already, though..._

and she slowly came to realize something she never wanted to-

_...Whatever you learn over time about my service in the NCR, hope you can forgive me..._

something that she may have already knew, but denied it this whole time-

_...Know its worth it._

_Craig_

She inhaled deeply then reread it in it's entire form, her body growing hotter and thoughts getting darker with each syllable she read. Carla crushed the paper in her hand, then tossed it on the floor after getting her fill.

Her realization?

_'He never loved me. Our time together and all the things I did were in vain. I'm a fool. I'm a weakling. I wish I never returned to him on that day.'_

A sadness overtook her and it contorted into hostility. She trembled in the bed from anger and humiliation, and knowing it in it's truest form, that was the end of something beautiful.


End file.
